#growing up in a rural area was so much fun

[unfortunatelyprofounddaughter]

i miss being 12. i miss going bird shooting and crab hunting with my dad and his friends. i miss spare fishing. i miss walking barefoot. i miss living near a river. i miss catching frogs with my brother. i miss sitting on the roof of our house and watching the sun set. i miss when i could be loud and rabid and covered in dirt. i miss licking the blood off of my skinned elbows and knees. i miss playing with firecrackers. i miss making mud castles. i miss going to drag races and farm shows. i miss my childhood bed and my star shaped night light. i miss the fish tank my dad made me that i kept tadpoles in. im sorry i didn't appreciate it when i had it. can i still come home?

[licorice-tea]

When The Tide Comes Out

Pairing: Portgas D. Ace x reader

Content: angst, fluff, h/c kind of… also kissing😽

Word Count: 1.1k

A/N: first time writing about Ace!! also i LOVE orville peck and this scenario just fit perfectly with this part of his song, “Blush”! Ace is so like… cowboy adjacent, too, so i think this kind of music is fitting for him! please enjoy and lmk what you think <3

There’s something ‘bout men that I don’t understand

You never would know how Ace did it. The constant solo traveling, having to find a new place to sleep every night, and not knowing where home is. Because, well, his home is a ship. He’s brave and responsible enough to take care of himself- you know that much- but still…

It’s a lifestyle that makes no sense to you.

On the other hand, you’ve never been one to stray far from home. You prefer to stay on your island, only going on the occasional vacation with family or friends. Still, you’ll always know where to come back to when the fun is over. And even then; you’re surrounded by people who carry the same feeling of comfort as your bed would.

Ace doesn’t have that. And he doesn’t seem to need it, either. He races around the globe in search of revenge. He calls it justice, but when you see the fire in his eyes- normally so full of warmth and comfort- you’re confused. It’s a scary look, one that you’d hate to ever see directed towards yourself. But, Ace could never direct such rage toward you. He barely gets to see you, why waste any time on bitter feelings?

Yet, he always leaves you. You’ve opened your door to him countless times; told him he was welcome to stay for as long as he wants. And every time, he chooses to leave after a night or two.

They’re always leaving wherever they’ve been

For what must be the hundredth time, you walk Ace to your front gate. You live in a nice rural area near the beach, and your front yard has its own garden and fish pond. It’s picturesque, and a home that most people (couples, specifically) could only dream of owning someday.

He hugs you tightly, burying his face in your hair with no shame.

“I miss you already.”

“Then stay.”

Ace shakes his head, surely messing up your styling, before he pulls back to face you. “You know I can’t.”

A thought tries to escape your mind, but your lips press together after a second thought. His hands brush a strand from your cheek- and you let him for a moment- but then you catch his wrist. “But you can, Ace.”

Brush it off with a shrug, I don’t know much about love

He sighs and a wince passes over his features; as if he’s in pain. “Let’s not do this right now, baby, please.”

“Don’t you baby me, Ace. You leave me alone for months on end and- and what? I’m supposed to just be content with seeing you for a few weeks out of the whole year?”

“… I’m sorry, I really am.”

This time, you’re the one to sigh and shake your head with a pained expression. “No it’s… I know what you’re doing is important to you.”

“But you’re important to me, too. You’re where home is.” The sentiment squeezes your heart- it feels like it’s about to burst.

“I know.” You try and offer a smile, so at least your last few moments together for god knows how log will be happy ones.

He laughs dryly at your obviously forced smile. Ace feels like he’s failing you, in all honesty, with no solution or viable compromise that will suit both his career as a pirate and the love he wishes to continue growing with you. “I’m not doing too great at this, am I?”

“You’re doing your best.” You pull him back in for another hug, and whisper against him. “I love you, Ace.”

He smiles into your neck. “I love you too.”

Still I give it a try now and then

You’re the first one to let go, pushing him away gently. “Go, before I try and stop you.”

His smile is strained, yet still bright and handsome. “I’ll come back sooner next time, okay?”

“You better. Or else I might have to find a replacement.”

Ace laughs and you giggle along with him. “Nah, I’m not too worried about that.” He presses a sweet kiss into your lips. “I mean it though. I want to make this work, and I want to be here with you.”

This time around, your smile is more genuine. “Then I can’t wait.”

Your hands turn his hips away from you as you playfully push him out the gate and toward the beach. “Now go so you can hurry back!”

The two of you laugh as you run down to where his raft is stationed on the shoreline.

Saddle up and ride on down

“You have my vivre card?”

“Mhm,” you pull it out of your pocket, “and you have mine?”

Ace lifts his hat to show you the card stitched onto it. “Always.”

He pushes the small boat out of the sand, and it floats in place. It’s powered by his own devil fruit, so there’s no concern of it drifting away without its owner. Who, as he turns back to you, gives you a look of longing. After a moment his face moves closer to yours, so you’re both smiling softly and nearly connected at the lips. Ace grips your waist and kisses you. It’s more passionate this time, and full of all the love and desire he has for you that he can fit into one action.

You huff in amusement. “Be safe.”

Ace nods. “I will.”

Maybe when the tide comes out

With reluctance, Ace releases his hold on your sides and wades in the shallow water. First he throws his bag on it, then lifts himself onto the deck of the Striker.

You wave goodbye, and he waves back. Theres a halo of sunlight cast from behind his dark curls and broad shoulders. Then, with a few sparks so as to get further from you and not accidentally burn you, the Striker moves further into the rising water. The realization that it’s high tide washes over you much like the waves themselves. You’re soaked up to your knees by now, but it’s no matter. You would swim across the whole ocean if only to get closer to him.

Ace and the Striker grow smaller and smaller in the distance, but you can still see his arm waving high in the air. You wave back with equal zeal, hopping up and down. His shouts of “I love you!” and “I’ll see you soon!” grow quieter, so you’re not even entirely sure when he stops.

Eventually, once he’s out of your field of vision, you turn back. You walk the same path up the beach- 2 pairs of footsteps still visible in the sand from your trip down to the shore just moments before.

Without your lover’s laughter in your ears, the creak of the gate is nearly deafening.

[writingoddess1125]

Soo I wanted to imput my own culture on this one!

COD Men + König Dating a Jamaican Women

König

• You and König had been together for quite a while. Spending most of your guys relationship in Europe and in his home country.

• But when you make to offer of having him meet your family he is more then happy to accept!

• He didn't expect to take a plane to the tropicals however- Ending up in such a touristy area at first. Till you lead him off the beaten bath to a much more rural area to introduce him to your family.

• They are a but surprised at first, seeing such a large man. However accept him with open arms- Your Mummy especially.

• You handed your mother her drink, watching her as she looked at the new member of the family who was seated playing cards with your cousin- The shorts She'd bought clearly being a size too small to fit him comforbly.

• It was like she got the son she wanted the most- Immediately having him change into more comforble clothes. Fed him, and forced you to walk him around the prettiest parts of town.

• "Why does it feel like my Mum likes you more then me!?"

• Konig could only laugh at this and shyly disagree.

• However after your Mum took him shopping since she felt like he didn't have the proper clothes he couldn't disagree further.

• He absolutely adores the beaches of your home and spends so much time swimming he gets a golden tan in a short amount of time.

• "Gonna need to order some better shorts" You mumbled- not wanting him to have a wardrobe malfunction while around your family. Your mother laughing at this and patting your hip- "Wen yuh climb tall trees yuh get langggg branches-"

• "MUMMY!"

Gaz

• You decided that it was time for Gaz to meet your family, wanting to take that extra step together.

• They are so excited to meet him they start chattering away immediately- However Gaz figures out very quickly...

• He is more then thrilled. Having wanted to take that next step with you for quite a while- So when the plan arrived at your home he was so happy to see your family there to meet you and him there.

• He doesn't know what the fuck they are saying-

• They had accidently assumed he knew Patwah and were corrected by you quickly. Since they assumed he was Jamaican like you-

• "Wait it's not just an accent?" Gaz asks softly to you, Which leads to you explaining that it's a Creole language called Patwah.

• Your Aunty however seemed to take the liking to Kyle the most. Seeing him as great husband potential for you- As well as dropping 'hints' about a wedding. Which was amusing since she had the thickest of accents out of your entire family.

• "Kyle lov, Wi wud waan (Y/N) married yah inna di yard. A nuh eh ah luk gud place tuh marry an av babies?" (Kyle Love, we would want married here at home. Isn't it a pretty place to marry and have babies? )

• Gaz didn't know what she said per say- But he did year the word Married and Babies.

• He does have a blast however, going out dancing with you, drinking with your family and having a grand time- But most was being fed near constantly.

• "Nyam up Maaga bwoy" (eat up skinny boy)

• Gaz was satted there in the kitchen of your family home, Staring as your Aunty adds another massive scoop of Rice and Peas to his growing plate. Filled delicious foods he could only dream of back home.

• It seemed like there was no escape from this pleasurable hell- and he couldn't be happier

• Gaz nodded obediently as he took up more rice on his fork and continued to eat. You trying to tell your aunty to not force feed your boyfriend.

Soap

• You bring up wanting Johnny to meet your family after officially meeting his- Seeing how it would be fair and should be a fun experience.

• Seems he found his people-

• Of course he is more then willing! Seeing it as a fun get away as well-

• When he arrives his naturally cheery personality wins over your family quickly. Ends up having a blast with them the first day and eats so much he almost gets suck.

• There is a mild language barrier- However it was overcome rather quickly.

• Your cousin seemed to absolutely ADORE Johnny. Taking the two of you out to clubs and different bars around the area.

• "We should buy a place out here- for times like this" He said, Leaning against you as the two of you walk back to your families house.

• Finds out quickly that it's relatively cheap in parts and having his nice military paychecks went a lloonnggg way here.

• Adsolutely loves the drinks. The Ginger beer, the Red Strike, Sorrel.

• Adores them honestly!

• This man has met other half it seems as bottles seem to rain around him.

• "Yu Drunk?" Your cousin calls out to Johnny who is dancing against you with a bright smile on his face.

• "A'm Blootert!" He shouts. His accent so strong its funny-

• Johnny ends up so drunk, he's locked arms with your cousin, seated under the romada singing some imaginary song they had made up together.

Ghost

• You take the opportunity to get your hair braided as well- seeing how for once you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for it.

• It takes a lot of convincing on your part to get Simon to come meet your family. You'd been dating more then long enough and he finally agrees one day-

• However he still wears some form of mask- in his case a skull face mask that is still breathable while keeping him covered.

• Your family was a bit apprehensive of Simon of first- surprised by such a brooding figure you'd dragged with you.

• That was till your father stepped forward and welcomed Simon with open arms. Which lead to the rest of the family also being warm and welcoming-

• Simon accepts this and goes along with the kind greetings from everyone.

• Simon tags along, which surprises you. Ends up asking the hair dresser questions constantly.

• "Wah mek yu deh ask suh much?" Your hairdresser staps a bit-

• "I want to learn how- do I can help her do her hair or our future children's" He says bluntly and truthfully.

• Wins over the whole Salon just like that.

• He has never met a group so God damn stubborn then your family- He can refuse all he wants but ends up being given or dragged some place.

• Getting a step by step on how to do different braids by the nice women at the Salon who baby him- even buying him lunch too.

• The soilder taking the day with your father. The two just enjoying the day together- Simon even smoking with him a little which made him relax more then he expected (You weren't there to tell him-)

• Didn't want a drink- Now has 4 he has finished. Refused an addional plate of food?- He had 3 more and some fruit.

• The only person who wasn't pushy was your father. Who was as stoic and laid back as Simon.

• Simon enjoyed the relaxing time with your Father- The two sitting on the front patio with their drinks sipping away as they occasionally chatted.

• This day being the same, When Simon got up prepared to be dragged to a other fun active place. But instead your father waving him over to sit with him.

• Looking to you as you just nod for him to go do as he pleased-

Price

• By the time you came back, Both men were actually chuckling at some sort of joke together. That night you looking to Simon who laid in bed with you shocked-

• "My Dad actually likes you-" You say in disbelief. Simon only nodding and smiling at your words.

• By the next morning he is as red as a Tomato and sunburned to high hell.

• John is willing to meet your family. Finding it would he a nice holiday and fun overall since he hadn't been to the Caribbeans since he was first in the military.

• When arriving he did notice some stares, since he was so clearly military and learned the distrust was real.

• But your family was open to him in extending that olive branch to him.

• Your uncle however- took some convincing. Which ended up getting John hazed of sorts.

• "Mek wi si wah yu gat Brit-" Your uncle Said with a grin. John of course accepting a challenge. From drinking, Dancing and more. Which ended up with the two shit talking each other-

• By the end of the night John and your Uncle were as thick as thieves.

• John even proud of the hand rolled cigarettes your uncle had given him.

• "Don't take his cigarettes-" You say calmly. Taking the homemade rolled cigarette from your boyfriend and handing him a packed one instead.

• While you were with some of your cousins catching up John sat out on a chair with your Uncles and cousins. The group smoking cigars and cigarettes and chatting away.

• Seemed time was lost on the both of you as John sat out in the sun far too long. Ignoring the reddening of his skin-

• Your poor Boyfriend tho-

• "Fuck-k" John mutters, wincing as he sits down with his arms held out. Your uncle laughing at him-

• You spend the evening rubbing Aloe in his skin and fanning his skin to help ease the burn.

• "Burned noice an criss Hm?" Your uncle said with a laugh making John give a fake glare at the old man.

• "Ah fuck ya you old geezer-" John winced out making the men around him laugh hard at his suffering.

[posletsvet]

A bunch of JJK season 2 headcanons:

(because I had nothing else to occupy my mind with while on a train trip)

Nanami has a few stomach problems, so he's very mindful about his diet. He eats bread on his cheat days. He also has mild lactose intolerance.

If there's anybody in the series with a 'my body is a holy temple' attitude, it has to be Gojo. He never smokes and rarely drinks because of that. Others used to make fun of him for 'being a princess with such delicate tastes', but he certainly did use it to his advantage by being insufferably annoying after parties/celebrations. He ended up not being invited.

Shoko smokes to wind down, so she sticks to some pleasant flavours. Her favourite ones are cherry and coffee, and she gets annoyed with tobacco shop workers for confusing the latter with chocolate.

During school Shoko carries around a handful of sugarless candy or gum to chew on in order to resist a tobacco craving. Gojo makes a habit of stealing a couple or more from her.

Geto smokes to numb his senses, so he usually goes for nasty foul things, nothing fancy at all. He also buys cheap cigarettes because he doesn't like the prospect of spending too much money on it. Once Shoko tried to snatch a cigarette from him, but ended up putting it out without finishing.

Geto actually hates the smell of cigarette smoke, so he has a separate set of clothes for this purpose. Gojo doesn't like it either, and he whines about it every single time Geto goes for a smoke because that means he can't hang out with him without smelling it.

Adults in Geto's life are usually fond of him, especially his past teachers, and his reputation of a model student is important to him. This is partly because his previous classmates tended to treat him as an outcast due to the rumors around him.

Haibara comes from a rural area and still has a great share of childlike wonder towards everything around him. He's more than excited to live in the capital city.

Haibara has a bunch of older siblings as well as a younger sister. By some miracle, he manages to get along with everyone. You guessed it: he is the miracle.

Utahime's hair tie is actually Shoko's gift.

Utahime's hairstyle was something that inspired Shoko to grow out her hair. She started by growing out her bangs. Before that, she had worn a bob haircut for as long as she could remember. Her mom insisted on it -- she thought longer hairstyle wouldn't suit her as her hair was rather thin. Turned out it wasn't true.

Shoko was raised by a single mom.

Nanami pierced his right ear, then backlashed by becoming too self-conscious about it and grew out his hair to hide the piercing.

Gojo is effortlessly good at everything he puts his mind to. When he started seriously studying chemistry in order to further improve his Limitless, he turned to Shoko for help, but then turned out to be a frustratingly quick learner. She would idly throw things at him for it.

Geto is a morning person to the marrow of his bone. His habit of getting up early stems from his childhood when he used to do so in order to get a few spare hours just for himself. He took to mindlessly cleaning up his room back then as well -- as a means to relax by organizing his life at least a little bit and feel in control of it.

Geto also cooks pretty well and is used to looking after himself. He's not that much of a foodie, though, and at some point of his life struggled with an eating disorder. He relapses during the Premature Death arc.

As someone who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Gojo doesn't know what household chores even are. After he takes Megumi and Tsumiki under his care, for quite some time it doesn't even occur to him that doing all the housework by themself isn't a normal childhood activity for an eight-year-old.

Gojo tries to give Geto a sweet tooth by being obnoxious about Geto having his drinks sugar-free and trying to sneak sugar in his beverages. It results in Geto gradually taking to drinking his tea/coffee with just one piece of sugar. Gojo thinks it's a win.

Gojo forgets to buy presents every single time. Untill he brings Geto and Shoko ridiculously expensive gifts that one time when they came to the decision they're not buying anything for each other this once due to low budget.

Gojo is an albino and has very sensitive skin. (That's why he was wearing a hoodie in Okinawa!!) Moreover, if it wasn't for the Six Eyes, he would have poor eyesight.

Geto's skin tans very quickly in the summer and he gets freckles easily. He ends up burrowing Satoru's sunscreen a lot.

Haibara is the only dog person of the group.

Shoko was involved in the jujutsu world from pretty early on since her technique is so rare and so valuable practically -- therefore her laid-back and nonchalant attitude.

Gojo has a severe case of being touch starved. He's constantly leaning in somebody's personal space and initiates touch a lot. Usually Geto doesn't mind it, but on bad days it rather unnerves him as he sometimes just needs his privacy.

Utahime used to chew on her lips when deep in thought or feeling nervous, and that made wearing lipstick a problem. She broke that habit after graduation as she started to gain confidence.

Geto and Utahime have the best handwriting among the group. Geto's is more graceful, swift with prolonged fine lines, and Utahime's is smaller, neat and round and with a lot of curves. Nanami's letters are refined and tidy, but somewhat formal as if it's typed rather than written. Shoko has pleasant handwriting as well, but she usually writes really fast and doesn't care whether it's nice to look at or not. She's got messy notes only she herself can navigate through. Haibara's writing is almost childish, big and legible and somehow brings to mind the image of a smile. Gojo's writing is like chicken scratch honestly. He couldn't care less and finds it funny when it's impossible to read.

Haibara more often than not forgets his lunch money. Nanami and Geto are usually the ones who share with him when it happens. Afterwards Gojo always demands that Geto share with him as well.

Last but not least: Gojo has migraines from time to time. He claims that laying his head in Geto's lap is the only thing that helps him.

[butcherlarry]

Kent farm and country Clark Headcanons

Some headcanons about the Kent family farm that @januariat requested I post about :) 

I grew up on a farm and at our peak we had a couple hundred head of beef cattle (we’ve had registered angus cattle for about 100 years, and have been farming since the family settled in that area in the mid 1800s I think?  We’re no longer at that farm, the parents moved themselves and the cattle to another one in the state, so they’re still farming).  We also did a lot of crop farming, mostly corn, wheat, and soybeans.  Dad had some hay fields that he would mow and bale multiple times throughout throughout the summer/fall to make bales as some of the food to feed our cattle throughout the year.  My siblings and I were involved in 4H/FFA growing up (my sister and I were in 4H, my brother did 4H and then FFA when he got to high school).  We always raised two steers to take to our county fair as projects (and maybe some breeding and open class projects on the side), and my brother did shop/metal working projects as well.  Needless to say, I have a lot of THOUGHTS and FEELINGS about Clark growing up on a farm in a small rural community.

I don’t read the comics (except WFA), and most of my interaction with the Superman/Clark Kent fandom has been through watching the newer movies, being in fandom discords, reading Tumblr posts, and fanfic that I’ve read.  This was just something fun for me to ponder about based on my life experiences (I also work in the ag industry, specifically the meats industry if you couldn’t tell from my username, lol)

For the type of farm, I think the Kents would have a lot of acreage do crop farming. I'm not as familiar with any specialty crops grown in Kansas, but as I stated before, the big three that were grown on my farm growing up were corn, wheat, and soybeans.  Those are pretty popular crops to grow in the midwest, so I could see the Kents growing those too. Not sure how viable it would be, but sunflowers can also grown as a crop.  I like the thought of the Kents maybe growing that because, you know, Kansas. 

If they had any livestock, it would be a small amount.  I’m not 100% sure on Clark’s current age in the comics, but if he was around before the 1980s, he might remember his parents raising some cattle or hogs as an extra way to get cash.  Unfortunately, there was a farm crisis that hit the Midwest in the 80s, and it hurt a lot of small farms.  Now a days, you have to to be raising a lot of one animal to make any kind of profit (if any).  If you’re raising hogs, you need a barn that holds 2000+ head finishing hogs to make money (I worked in one of these barns and a hog nursey that held 5000+ during covid when I got laid off from my job.  It SUCKS.  I developed a new fear in life of being eaten alive by 300+ lb pigs, but that’s a story for another day).  It’s the same with chicken and turkey as well, but I’m not as sure on the barn size.  If the Kents do have any livestock, it would be animals that would be used to supplement their diet, like a small flock of chickens for eggs, and a dairy animal (goat or cow?  Maybe goat since they’re smaller and don’t take up as much space as a cow.  Might also be easier to handle for the Kent parents as they get older, but I’ve never owned a goat before, so don’t quote me on that.  Goats are smart and are pretty good at getting in trouble, lol).  

If the Kents have any large meat livestock, like cattle, it would only be one or two, which leads me to my next headcanon, that Clark was in 4H/FFA growing up!  I love, love, LOVE the idea of Clark being in 4H or FFA while in school at Smallville, and having a beef or dairy beef steer(s) as a livestock project.  Also, Clark would show his project animals at his county fair!  I don't think he would win or do well in the main classes.  From my experience, usually it's families that are big into showing cattle, and you need a lot of money for that for all the equipment and supplies that goes with it. They also tend to travel a lot with those animals, and show them in other contests as well (maybe state fair.  If you want to hear a rant about how much I don’t like show cattle and the show cattle industry, hmu). If anything, Clark would probably do well in the showmanship shows. That's more dependent on the trust between you and your animal, and how much you've worked with them.  I can definitely see Clark working with his animals everyday, cleaning, feeding, and leading them.  You know someone has really worked with there animal if they can lead and stop them so the animal’s feet are positioned correctly without having to use a show stick to move the feet (yes, there is a correct way cattle need to stand when showing.  A lot of terminology describing the feet positions too.  Again, if you want more details, hmu).

On top of showing cattle, I also love the thought of Clark taking a shop project through FFA/4H, especially if it's welding. He could use it as a way to practice with his laser vision!  You can definitely tell a good weld from a bad weld, and I can see Clark working on his laser vision skills to improve.  My brother and Dad would work on, fix and build equipment and fences with welding, so I can also see Clark learning how to do that to help out on the farm!  And I'm sure Jonathan Kent would appreciate it since he wouldn't have to spend as much money on the welding and torch gasses and the equipment that goes with it.

Welp, those are my headcanons for Clark, the Kents, and farming.  I’m sure if you poke me, I could go into more detail on somethings, or think of more headcanons about those topics.  Most of my ag experience has been in raising beef cattle, so that shaped most of these headcanons that I have.   If you or someone else in the Superman fandom have a farming background, please tell me what your headcanons are!!  I would love to hear them!  Growing up on a farm was a big part of Clark’s life, so we need more country Clark stories!

[creaturefeaster]

What is it like to raise birds? I really like birds and I would like to have as many as you but I have no idea if it is how I imagine it, even so, if I had some I would love them! I'm sorry if there are spelling mistakes.

Owning and raising birds is a real treat. They are easy to understand if you're committed to learning, and are a really fun and healthy source of entertainment. Most of my childhood was me being a bedridden hermit, and getting chickens was the first and most vital step in getting me outdoors and moving more. It's amazing how much flock animals can change your life for the better.

Chickens are funny, easy to keep happy, and if you handle them right, extremely loving in their own way that makes it exciting to go out each day and see how they're doing.

Raising them from chicks yourself is the best way to ensure they'll be friendly and loving when they're older. It can be sort of scary when you have your first chicks, it's easy to think they're more fragile than they are, or that you're upsetting them, but baby birds just like to whine. Some more than others, but either way you learn pretty quickly that being consistent and easy-going with your attention is what birds tend to like.

Working with a calm hand and persistence, you will be rewarded with a fun hobby that comes with many benefits. Chickens are best for eggs and compost, getting rid of food scraps and old (but never moldy!) food turns into fresh eggs to eat and poop for fertilizing the land. Geese are great for maintaining wild plant growth, keeping grass low cut and invasive weeds at bay, and also produce a lot of feather fluff if you have use for goose feathers. Their eggs are also massive, though not as good for frying as chicken eggs. Ducks are great at keeping garden pests at bay, and can be super amusing as they're surprisingly fast paced and emotive animals.

They are very messy, though. Maybe not as much with chickens-- as long as they have a dry space they keep themselves pretty clean as long as you change their bedding when they need it. Ducks and geese however, which are waterfowl, can be much much messier. Ducks especially. They need a lot of water to be happy, and get it everywhere. This in combination with their poop leads to quickly dirtied water and muddy enclosures if you don't keep up with the cleaning. Every day I get messy and wet for their sake. I don't mind it, but it can be harder to manage in colder and wetter months.

It can be a bit of a hump to get past the grosser parts of poultry care, but once you get past that, and you have a routine, I think it's still a relatively easy thing to maintain, and is worth it for all the pleasantries the birds bring in turn.

Chickens do well with less space than a lot of other poultry, their comfortable square foot per individual radius is rather small, given they have room to run and can all get along. It is simple and easy to raise chickens in a suburban backyard. I am not sure if it works similarly for other countries, but look up your town ordiances for poultry livestock allowances, if in the USA. More towns allow backyard hens than you'd expect, depending on the square footage of your property.

Geese and ducks need much more space, they are roamers and need large spaces to walk, stretch their wings, and explore to stay happy lest they grow bored and agitated. Unless you live in rural neighborhoods, it is unlikely you can own waterfowl. And roosters; Many suburban towns that allow hens do not allow roosters, because they are noisy.

Quails are also another choice, if chickens are too intimidating or difficult to procure in your area. Many quails can live quiety and happily in an enclosure even inside, so long as they have proper enrichment. They can be a good and cute stepping stone to bigger birds like chickens or ducks.

Turkeys and guinea fowl are interesting in their own way as well. I don't have as much experience with turkeys, they're larger and sassier but they generally work well with chickens. Plus they make funny noises and are amusing to look at. Guinea fowls, kind of like geese, are really good watch dogs if you live in a place with hawks, eagles, or small predators. They are very loud and vocal, and can be somewhat assertive and protective of their flock. They're also really stupid looking.

But anyways, back to what it's like to have birds in general... If you're birdbrained you will feel at home when you are amongst your flock. If you aren't birdbrained, enough time around them will make you so. It will be a peaceful experience and the work put into them is always rewarding. Being able to sit with chickens, letting them jump up to you and eat from your hand, or petting and hugging a duck, or having a gaggle of geese follow you through a field in a slow line... it's like having a fun and obtainable experience to look forward to every day. :3

Oh, I was going to end it there but I actually have one more thing to add. This part of poultry care is the part people don't always like to hear/realise, but the biggest thing with poultry is: Do not raise what you are not willing to kill. Regardless of whether you raise birds like chickens for meat, eggs, or just as pets, you must accept that fact that at some point, you may need to humanely cull one. Unwanted males do not sell/rehome easily, and can become an issue to take care of if you aren't ready to cull. Sick hens do not always make it, and sometimes you have to decide to spare them the pain and put them down. Vets can sometimes help with this, but most of the time that requires an exotics expert, and can cost you much more than it's worth. Being able to cull your birds is also useful life experience and teaches proper animal respect.

Just, keep that in mind if you ever look into owning birds. You need to be strong for their sake, you are the one they depend on the most.

[victoriansecret]

I'm in my mid-30s and my ever-growing love for history has spurred me to consider a career change into the field. I'd love to work in a museum or archive in a research or curatorship role (rather than as an academic), and I live somewhere where I could take time out to get a masters degree.

From your experience - is a change like this feasible? Is there work available? Will a late (re)start be a hindrance to getting a foot in? Is a degree worth it, or should I aim to get volunteer experience instead? Or am I better off sticking with my current decent office job and treating historical research as a passion/free-time activity instead?

This is a great question, and I wanted to give you as good an answer as possible so I outsourced to a friend and former colleague who worked in collections. This is what she had to say: *follow the Emerging Museum Professional FB page. There is lots of advice there

*I don’t think it’s ever too late to follow your dreams. You’re in your mid-30s, not 99! (Although even then I’d say go for it!)

* I’d recommend volunteering at a place you would be interested in working in. It’ll give you a better sense whether or not this is actually a field you’d like to get into, or just a fun hobby. Both answers are totally ok

* I’m a fan of experience over degrees, but it really depends on where you would want to work. Many positions require a masters degree, but not all. If you are in a small town, or more rural area, it would be easier to talk your way into a position than if you are in a big city

* if you’ve loved history for a long time, try to articulate how skills you have in your hobby or through your office jobs relate to the museum field. I used to manage cafes and found that many of those skills transitioned into collections management (inventory, databasing, customer interactions, etc.)

Best of luck! ---

I will echo her point that it's definitely not too late and if it's something you're truly passionate about it's worth at least considering. Obviously it's not always that simple - giving up a stable, decent job is a risk etc., so while I'm generally not a fan of volunteer work, it might be worth trying it just to see if it's something you would like as much as you think. I will also agree with her point about experience over degrees. I've never been to college at all myself, which is a huge rarity in this field, and when I got my first museum job my only work experience was running a salad bar at a restaurant. But my supervisor told me, years after the fact, that part of why she gave me an interview was that in my cover letter I made an analogy comparing running a salad bar to being a historic interpreter: something about how being in the middle of the dining room meant the bar and by extension myself were always on display, and how that would mean I'd be more comfortable with thousands of guests seeing me in period clothing etc. Granted, interpreting is very much about talking and making analogies to help guests understand the past, so it's a bit different from the behind the scenes work in how those skills translate, and how demonstrating an ability to talk is directly related to the work itself, but still. I hope this is helpful, and I hope that if you do decide to pursue this it works out how you hope! Thanks for the question!

[dorunasch]

Hello! I have heard some people express interest in getting a summarized version of the Cray Cross Epic novel lore, which has not been officially translated into English. Because I am very fond of Vanguard lore, I took it upon myself to summarize the first part of the novel. This is a SUMMARY, NOT a translation! I am not very good at Japanese, in fact! Also, I am doing this for fun, so if there's interest in more of these, I wouldn't mind... I want more people to experience Cray lore, after all. Please enjoy!

Chapter 1, Episode 1: The Beginning

Three thousand years ago, in the lush nation of Zoo on Planet Cray, lived a young bioroid boy named Rorowa. Bioroids are humanlike, but with the longevity and grace of plants, and bioroids are capable of manipulating plantlife. Slender and unassuming, Rorowa has dark green hair that is decorated with the beautiful leaves and berries of the rowan tree.

Rorowa isn’t good at much; his skills with a sword are mediocre, and he lacks self-confidence. As a result, he tends to get swept up in the actions of the people around him. One such person is the bioroid Olivi, who travels across Cray with Rorowa at his side.

Olivi — a large bioroid who looked to be in his mid-twenties in human terms — was the one who found Rorowa, seventeen years ago. Unlike most creatures, like humans or dragons, bioroids have no parents and are born fully-formed from the plant life of Cray. Olivi rudely woke the bioroid boy, who was sleeping peacefully in a cradle of thin leaves, by kicking him.

“Sleep time is over! Good morning! Good morning, good morning, good morning!”

The forest around him was withered and dying, the trees naked, and a foul stench of death and decay filled the air. If it had not been for Olivi waking him up, the young bioroid would likely have perished alongside it all.

Because he found the bioroid boy amidst the death of the forest, the only survivor of an unknown catastrophe that wreaked havoc upon the land, Olivi named him after the rowan: a resilient and hardy tree, one that can grow in harsh conditions and survive even being burned seven times.

And just like that, the bioroid youth Rorowa’s tumultuous life began.

—

In the town of Turi, a rural area in the west of the nation Zoo, Olivi overhears some villagers discussing the Burner Ant, a large, fiery insect belonging to a criminal gang within Megacolony. They fear that it is only a matter of time before their wheat fields burn to the ground because of it. Of course, Olivi is unable to stand idly by, and Rorowa finds himself being chased through the wheat fields by the Burner Ant not long after.

Neither he nor Olivi is suited for combat, and they find themselves trapped between a wide, deep irrigation canal and the angry Burner Ant. Olivi mutters something about a “special trick,” which Rorowa is deeply apprehensive about, before picking up Rorowa around the waist and hoisting him up. For a moment, Rorowa thinks that Olivi is going to throw him across the canal, to safety, but, to Rorowa’s dismay, Olivi hurls Rorowa like a spear… at Burner Ant.

Rorowa smashes into Burner Ant with his head, knocking the monster unconscious and probably giving Rorowa a concussion. This is the beginning of their problems.

Part of Burner Ant, still on fire, touches Rorowa’s foot unexpectedly. In his panic, Rorowa kicks it off of him—

—and ignites the entire field of dry wheat.

—

It takes several hours to extinguish the fire, and by then, the crop is totally destroyed. Rorowa apologizes profusely to a kindly turnip dryad, Heave-Ho Turnip, while Olivi unsuccessfully tries to make small talk. Because Rorowa and Olivi have very little money between the two of them, there is no way for them to pay the dryad back for the lost wheat. Olivi suggests selling his pendant, a black stone resembling an olive with fine gold grains embedded in it, but Heave-Ho Turnip dismisses it as a dirty necklace.

In exchange for allowing the two to stay at his inn, Heave-Ho Turnip points out deep ruts along the road and fields. There is apparently someone destroying the roads and crops, and Heave-Ho Turnip wants the two bioroids to find and punish them.

—

As a bioroid, Rorowa feels an almost physical pain at the thought of the wheat field burning down. Unable to sleep, he leaves Heave-Ho Turnip’s inn late at night, wandering out into the dark. The two moons in the sky of Cray are new moons, and there is very little natural light as a result. The fields are black ash, and he kneels down in the middle of it, summoning his innate power as a bioroid to bless the earth and bring life back to the fields. As he pours his power into the ground, small buds sprout up across the field, filling Rorowa with hope.

But this hope is short-lived.

As the grain is almost set, it turns black, as if rotting from the roots, then white-gray, and finally, it withers. Rorowa can remember the day of his “birth”; the ashen plantlife and ashy fields he sees now are just like they were when he woke into this world.

And then he hears the source of the destruction behind him.

A horrible creature emitting a sound so terrifying it is as if you’re being dragged by the feet into a deep abyss, dragging itself slowly across the ground. Rorowa can make out a series of blood-red eyes blinking through the darkness. From the dragging sound, he knows it must be a long creature. And as it opens its red-black calyx*, it laughs.

The creature is so terrifying that Rorowa cannot move. He knows he could never compete with it, he could never outrun it. And through his horror, he hears a familiar voice.

Hey Rorowa, I told you not to go out at night without me.

And Rorowa’s memory ends there.

—

What pulls Rorowa from his slumber is the sound of someone digging in the soil. Rorowa dimly realizes that he is in the dirt, judging by the smell of the ground surrounding him. Finally, the dirt in his face is shoveled away, and a light shines in his face.

Once he adjusts his gaze, he sees a girl holding a lantern and a shovel. She seems to be human, about Rorowa’s age (seventeen or eighteen), with long brown hair tied high and a determined gaze in her eyes.

Without thinking about what it must look like to find a body buried underground that is suddenly able to move, Rorowa reaches his arm up toward her. Of course, she mistook him for a zombie, and with a barely muffled scream, swings her shovel down at Rorowa, and takes off his left arm before he can protest.

It doesn’t hurt; in fact, the arm is shriveled at the shoulder anyway, and with the plant powers he possesses as a bioroid, he will be able to regenerate it. But it takes him—and the girl—a few minutes to regain their composure. The first thing Rorowa asks her as he is safely dug up is whether she makes a hobby of graverobbing. She answers evasively and wonders why there was even a person in the ground there, anyway.

Now that he is out of the ground, Rorowa can see that he is at the base of a massive tree, with roots lifted out of the ground and spread out across the ground. The trunk is thick, so it must be an ancient tree. His head hurts as he tries to remember what happened before losing consciousness. All he can remember is eating dinner and going to sleep… and he doesn’t know where Olivi is.

As he is thinking, a small dragon appears from behind the girl. He is the same color as the flame-colored outfit the girl wears, and he has two horns on his head, with a flame burning on his tail. The girl looks at Rorowa while nuzzling the dragon’s little face and introduces herself as Radylina, a Dragritter from the Dragon Empire, and the young dragon is Momokke, a Kagero dragon. Rorowa knows that the Dragritters are knights of the Dragon Empire who ride their dragon partners through the sky, much like the legendary Dragon Knight, Nehalem. But this dragon is so small and cute, a thought that Rorowa voices out loud. At Radylina’s indignant expression, Rorowa changes the conversation and introduces himself.

“Ah, I’m Rorowa.”

“Why were you buried there?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out…”

“Maybe you’re a very active sleepwalker, and just walked into the Sanctuary and buried yourself in the ground.”

“Sanctuary?”

The tree, she points out, is the World Tree, and the Sanctuary is part of the city that has sprung up around it. Protected by shrine maidens, the World Tree causes forests to flourish and gives great life to the region. Rorowa had seen it before, from a distance, in his travels with Olivi, but he doesn’t quite know how he traveled this far while unconscious.

He asks her which part of Zoo they were in — east or west? She frowns at him.

“Zoo? This is Stoichea. Zoo disappeared three thousand years ago.”

Three thousand is such an enormous number to Rorowa that it feels like a bizarre joke. There’s no way an entire nation the size of Zoo could just disappear. But before he can question her further, they hear voices coming from a nearby building.

“Who’s there?”

Several bioroids carrying lanterns in their hands approach them. Because this is a sanctuary, they are probably the security. With a click of her tongue, Radylina grabs something off the ground and hurls it at one of the guards. Her aim is accurate, and her arms are strong, so when one of the guards is struck, they fall unconscious. But Rorowa can’t really find it in him to be terribly impressed, because the thing she threw was—

“My arm!”

—Rorowa’s severed arm.

Radylina ditches her shovel and lantern and takes off. Rorowa follows her; when she asks why, annoyed, he has no idea, other than that they’re being chased and that it seems like he’s safer with an angry girl like her around. The voices of the guards chasing them echo in the air. Rorowa thinks he could probably start crying at any moment.

So begins Rorowa’s adventure in the world, three thousand years later.

Note: a calyx is part of a flower, "typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud." This indicates that the creature that attacked Rorowa was some kind of monstrous plant with multiple parts to it.

[mountain-wire]

6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, here's to the last man on earth in the end.

Au!Raphael x gn!reader

Part 1

Cw: Talk of death kind of

Self-indulgent writing, we love it. This is entirely based on Anna Bates song "Last man on earth" and a random writing prompt I saw on TikTok a while ago, so. If that tells you something, take it I guess.

An au set where the reader has ended up immortal and as the last man on earth due to a medicine that everyone had to take that was meant to lengthen human life[spoilers: it didn't.], until... actual alien turtles show up. That's basically it.

The world. Still just as empty as you remembered. You'd been alone for a while now, a few years you'd think, maybe 5. You lost track after a while, just sort of living life as it came by. This whole thing started by you thinking everyone in your house just disappeared, left without you. You realized after a little bit that it wasn't what happened. You found out the horrible way that after this sort of shot meant to keep everyone alive for much longer actually did the opposite. To everyone but you.

So you were left alone, you wandered. By now it felt like you'd lost your mind, saying everything in your head out loud, so you could at least hear something. You ended up in New York 2 years ago, seeing all the buildings starting to grow plants was... Weird. You didn't think any structure would be growing Vines and moss by now, let alone New York of all places. You were definitely found wrong there, it was sort of fun watching the plants grow over the past 2 years, gave you something to do.

Animals had also started venturing into the abandoned city, it was a good change in the silence you'd fallen into. You even got close to the deer and squirrels.

At the moment you were walking through one of the most overgrown parts of New York you'd seen by now, the vines climbed the side of the buildings at least 20 feet up and moss was spotted around up much of that. It had a weird comfort of seeing it, it looked just like old images you saw of cities taken over by plants. You were sure to see more of this soon, you thought.

You walked to what you assume used to be a restaurant, pulling out a knife and cutting at the vines that locked the door shut, and started talking out loud to yourself.

"This'll be fun. I think. I mean it looks like a cool restaurant," you looked to the side, the restaurants windows covered. It did not actually look cool. "yeah. Cool looking. Looks like... Vines! On the menu today! Maybe it'll be the road work ahead one."

Quietly laughing, you opened the door, hearing a jingle. Man did that bring a bunch of memories back. You brushed it off and jogged to the front, rang the bell thing they had. Leaning against the counter you looked around, this place seemed to have the same vibe as those little pit stops you see in more rural areas. It was much quieter than it should've been though. It made you uncomfortable.

Deciding it had been enough time you hopped the counter, knocking the stuff on the side to the floor. You ended up on the floor too, you'd just tripped yourself.

"The service here sucks." You said after a couple seconds, hoping anything watching you would laugh along too. You didn't think anything was watching anyway, but you can always be sure.

You felt like you could sleep, but you needed to up and move. Quickly, you sat up and crawled to where you assumed the kitchen was. You assumed right, and it smelled horrible. Someone had to have died here, come on.

"Knives knives knives, spoons, but is there any food that's actually good?" Clanking and scraping attacked your ears as you moved things, grabbing different knives you liked so you could add it to the knife room. "Hopefully this place was bad and used canned shit. That would make my and the microwaves day..... How that thing still works is a mystery to me. I'm sure someone out there knows why it still works! If only they could tell me."

Reaching the end of the line you decided to grade the cleanliness of this place and went back through, you learned if a restaurant was less clean there's a better chance of them using cans or non perishable foods. You liked the mystery of it too, it was like a game. It took up time and kept you entertained!

"Let's see.... Ovens... Check! Kinda greasy, kinda dusty too, somehow. How is the inside of an oven dusty, it's supposed to be shut tight right? Wouldn't that stop a lot of dust. So put 'not very good ovens' on the list."

You enjoyed using the knowledge Gordon Ramsay gave you from his shows. Wait...

"GORDON RAMSAY!!! NOO!!!!" You gripped your hands to the side of your head and dropped to your knees, all dramatically.

Upon the realization that Gordon Ramsay was dead like everyone else, you decided to skip the rest of the kitchen and just head straight to the freezers and fridges to look for food. On the way you took note of how this place actually had a microwave. Hopefully their salads weren't being put in there.

Every Gordon Ramsay reference your mind made had you feeling slightly worse. It wasn't super new, realizing someone big was also gone, but it always hit you the same.

"Alright. This one's for you Gordon." You wiped fake tears from your face before bursting open the doors to see...

A normal fridge. Nothing horrifying or exciting. That was exactly what you wanted right now, to be met with more silence, more quiet. An upside! There was at least honey in here, and at least a single can of soup. You'd read all the details on the nutrition labels later, but for now you would stuff them into your bag and continue the investigation.

"Let's go! Kinda nasty freezer check! Let's mark this place down! This one's gonna be nice to clean I can tell. Well I can't really, but it'll be satisfying! There's a lot of random tins, I'm not sure I wanna know what's in there. Maybe this is what died, not even a person." Reminded of Gordon Ramsay again, you frowned and pulled out a map of New York.

You marked this place with a red marker, that you know means to return. You never said the reason but you always knew when you'd return to any location with the red mark. You also marked it with orange, which means it's a restaurant. You had colors for many places. Black for 'dont return here', red for 'do return here', purple for electronics stores, orange for restaurants, blue for sporty areas, yellow for more shop filled areas, green for apartments or homes, and pink for unpredictable areas(you also liked to call them the exciting areas). Most areas with black were also pink.

"Let's blow this joint, guys." The map returned to it's spot in your bag and you gave it a pat before slipping on invisible sunglasses and taking long strides out the door.

You never realized how stuffy it was in the restaurant. It felt amazing to take a breath outside of that place. It really did smell horrible. There's probably a good few reasons for that. You moved away from the restaurant to take a good look at it, you wanted to remember what it looked like for when you eventually returned. You wanted to head home for now though, listen to music on the many different things you had. You had a vinyl record player. Who just has that in New York, you didn't know but you were pretty glad they did, they had some pretty cool bands too. You wanted to listen to music desperately, so you planned to run. Seeing a cool skateboard you stopped in your tracks, almost falling flat on your face.

"Well hello there! How did I not see you before... Oh wait nevermind, I was definitely just way too focused on the plants. That makes sense. Who would just leave this out here though. There's nobody nearby, who just loses this on the streets of New York..? Whatever, mine now." The skateboard seemed uninterested in your commentary as you held it under your arm.

You looked back at the area you just came from, upset you didn't get to explore more, before setting the board on  the ground and setting off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The wheels came to a stop as you placed your foot down, a weird squeak-screech noise coming from it. Maybe all the years of no use. You looked around wearily, looking for anything that could see where you're going. It felt like your home was a secret you needed to keep, but it wasn't. Even if it was what would you have to hide it from? Nothing. Something inside you just kept saying you had to look around whenever you stopped and eventually you just stopped caring about suppressing it. Seeing that everything was clear you picked up the board and ran into an alleyway in-between what you think is an arcade pizza place and bakery with a home on the second floor. Rummaging through your bag you walked to the back doors of the bakery, it was barred up with this silly looking padlock you found in one of the unstable areas. The arcade was locked up with a similar one too, you were just in the bakery mood today.

"Found you, you beauty!" You said, holding a key that looked just as silly as the padlock up to the sun like it was going to save your life.

The lock opened easily, which was not surprising, the key was made for it. Quickly, you slid into the bakery before closing the door and relocking it, except from the inside this time. Putting the key back into your bag you moved further into the building, your bag now only hanging loosely from your hand. Your feet felt heavy and your eyes felt the same. A good sleep to some music would be awesome. Making your way to the stairs you moved through your bag once more, this time simply checking you had everything you wanted.

"Everything's there, I think. I'm okay, it's okay. Everyone's okay." You yawned and turned towards the door besides the stairs.

The basement doors always felt ominous, today was no different. There was a feeling of something new this time. Today was really throwing you off, everything's felt new. You didn't like it, but what else could you do. Brushing off that feeling you swung the door open and shuffled in and down the stairs.

The walls were painted with your own hands, a white background with designs, characters, and silly things you remembered from the past. It made you feel better to see, a comfort in an uncomfortable place. The wood floors matched pretty well covered in drops of paint you ignored and never cleaned up, no matter how messy it could look it felt like home.

You dropped your bag on a stool by the stairs, a loud clang coming from it. Ah, the knives. You were so caught up in the almost normal you forgot the knives.

"How could I! Gordon Ramsay look what you've made me do."

You made it a point to collect random things from your adventures, it just so happened you got so many knives you have a room dedicated for them now. It wasn't your favorite use of a room but it felt cool. Grabbing the knives from the bag you quickly walked through the basement coming to a smaller-than-normal door with a label that let you know exactly what it was on it.

"I've got more knives for you, knife room! I hope they fit in well! They're pretty cool ones this time." They all looked the same, another lie.

The door got stuck a little, you've just gotta turn it until you hear a click then you can open it. It's just like lockpicking.

Once it opened you hurried in, already looking for a place to put the new knives. You were at least glad the knife room was kinda small, so it's not like you'd use this room for anything else. Finding a nice spot in-between the few knives that look exactly the same and the other knives that look exactly the same. You really dreaded the day you'd have to start hanging knives on the walls. Or just sticking the knives in there like some freaky countryman.

With the knives In their new home you felt satisfied enough to leave the shiny room, which you did with little complications! The door that's weird to open is weird to close, you still needed to do that stupid maneuver.

Heading back to what you called the living room, you happily slid over to the record player you definitely didn't steal. You had a little bookshelf beside it with all the records you found and liked. It was mostly just everything you found, you weren't going to pass up any music in this world. Your favorite was this Queen record you found, it was Queens greatest hits. Which the greatest hits might not hold your favorite Queen songs but it still had really awesome songs. It's Queen, of course there's awesome songs on it.

Carefully you put it on the player, and moved the thing that you didn't know the name of onto the record and started playing your music. Holding your hands up like if you touched it you'd break it, you backed up towards the couch. You knew that as soon as you sat down you were going to fall asleep, but you didn't mind.

"This sleeps gonna be awesome." Were your last words after you sat down.

You fell asleep to Bohemian Rhapsody, could you ask for anything more than this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suddenly, a loud crash woke you up. As far as you know, that wasn't normal in your home. Slowly, you stood up. Your eyes were still blurry and you were still riddled with sleep side effects, but you made a move to the stairs.

"....The music.... It's not playing... It's been longer than like 20 minutes. That narrows it down..." You were slowly waking up.

Another loud crash sounded when you opened the basement door. It was definitely coming from outside. At least that's good to know.

You realized you forgot the door key. You didn't want to go and get it so you just opened the window and crawled out, with a bit of knocking things over. You hoped that whatever was making the loud noises didn't hear. If it was even a creature, at that.

You stopped and waited for a second, hoping another sound would come from the noisy thing.

Another sound did come, and not even a minute later. The smart half of your brain suddenly kicked in.

"Itsnoneofyourbusiness Itsnoneofyourbusiness Itsnoneofyourbusiness.... Don't be like white people in horror movies....... Damnit." You moved silently, heading to the back of the arcade instead of the bakery, as it had more cover.

You were hoping it would just be an animal being ridiculously stupid, and that's definitely what you were expecting too. The crash was followed by an unfamiliar noise, the sort of thing you'd expect to come from a tuba or other large brass instrument, but it was weirder than that at the same time, like an auto tuned tuba being operated by someone who doesn't know how to play the tuba.

What you did not expect to see was what looked like a very large and spiky rock. No wait... That's not what it was.

"Oh my god, what the fuck" you whispered as you ducked more behind the building that was currently blocking you from the thing on the road.

It was laying on the road, so that's why you would think it's a large, green, spiky rock but you've never seen a rock that looks like that and by this point you're pretty sure you've seen all kinds of rocks. A second point that changed your mind from rock completely was that it moved. It was moving. Rocks don't move. You'd say that whatever it was looked like a turtle, but turtles are not that large the last time you checked. The biggest turtle you knew existed was the Archelon and those guys were extinct, and also sea turtles. So a normal turtle? Totally off the table. Rock? Also totally off the table. Everything you could have come up with was thrown off the table. The table was thrown out the window!

"Okay okay okay. This isn't my business, this isn't my business. Not my circus, not my monkeys." You tried to convince yourself to walk away, that this was something you didn't want to deal with.

You couldn't help but stay though, it was totally new, even to the world before you became the last person on earth. You were in new territory and it was so cool.

You leaned further out, to get a better view of whatever it was. You didn't think turtles could stand like that either. Every instinct in your body was telling you to run as whatever this held its head and looked around.

If you were to die from the shot that killed everyone else you'd want it to be now. Your curiosity got the better of you and the turtle saw you. You made eye contact. A note, it had normal eyes too. It was weird. This situation was weird and now? You were screwed. Utterly screwed.

You started at the turtle and he stared at you for what felt like forever before you slid back behind the building. You didn't know if you should run, stay hidden, or go inside somewhere quick. You quickly shut up your mind, if you needed to really listen at any point it would be now. If whatever that was decides to sneak up on you what would you do? It is definitely stronger than you, you'd lose in a fight instantly.

Shoving your fear down you stood tall, preparing for what you would see when you looked around the corner again. You felt like you should've run but you wanted to be brave. You carefully grabbed the wall before the corner and leaned over, prepared to see the turtle thing still looking over from the road. What you didn't expect was the turtle basically directly in front of you, close enough you could reach out with one arm and touch it.

The feeling of dread that overcame you was something you could attribute to the feeling you'd expect a mouse to have when a lion is standing behind it and it knows.

You looked up at the turtles face. It looked extremely confused and shocked. Even worse, it now leaned down to your level. It didn't seem like a threat but you were certainly terrified. It spoke, but you couldn't understand it. You're pretty sure it's just a different language type of situation but you did not want to deal with this at all. On that thought you finally listened to your instincts and absolutely booked it down the alley. Where you were going you didn't know but hopefully it didn't either. You could hear it shout something out as you ran away, but you weren't going to stop and see it's reaction. No way were you going to get yourself captured or something. You could think about what just happened when you stopped and were safe.

You were going to run until your muscles ached. You could promise that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So gonna be a series. Apologies if it's not awesome, this is literally my first time writing something like this ever. Criticism is absolutely appreciated! <3

⭐ Next

[innerchorus]

I am currently having Saam feels and I just need to express them somehow!! He's gonna have a better time in Wolfpack than he does in canon— not only is his love Kharlan alive, Hilmes is proving to be a worthy leader, they're not stuck between a rock and a hard place, etc etc, and I like to think he and Shapur might feel a shared connection of them both having changed their allegiances from Andragoras to Hilmes (though for very different reasons)... Things are really looking up for both his country and liege, and he's got a tiny healer aggressively pushing him to take better care of himself. And... And... Fuck, my head's all jumbled. Maybe Hilmes would confide in him with his insecurities, all the complicated and intense emotions and grief and everything regarding the history of Kaykhusraw and the clan, the truth of his lineage, his uncertainties, his resolve to build a better Pars, everything, the sheer trust of it all (unlike a certain someone...*side-eyes chapter 115 Hilmes*), and he gets to witness Hilmes grow!! He'd be so proud! I do wonder what he'd think of all the clan history stuff though, he'd be Shook for sure. I think he'd really encourage the idea of the ceremony for the Temple of Truth, it just feels right for him. And he'd bond with Arslan over wanting Hilmes to grow... He's gonna have so many bonds with so many people! Including various clan folk— chaos aside Kazai is a caring person once you get to know him after all. He doesn't get to be isolated anymore.

I don't imagine Kubard would like to serve Hilmes, though— he might end up joining the clan, he might just strike out on his own to be a wanderer who occasionally keeps in touch with everyone else. He might first encounter the clan in Daylam or something, or somewhere near, maybe when the clan is rounding up rural areas to help around or fortify them or just responding to the Lusitanians (by striking them down), and maybe they could've fought alongside each other and think “oy this guy's fun!”

I think I've posted about the mages integrating themselves into the local folks' day-to-day lives by helping manage grain storage and helping repel pests and healing people and stuff like that, so what if they expand a little, extend their services to areas outside of Shapur's lands? And that's how they probably ended up somewhere around Daylam?

I don't know how to end this so uh, have this mental image of Eihon whacking Hilmes and/or Saam and/or Zandeh with her trusty stick. I don't know how this got into my head but it's stuck there and I'm about to make it your problem.

I once saw a fanart of a very worried Zandeh piling a mountain of blankets on a sick Saam with Hilmes sitting by his bedside, haven't tracked down the source but it was very cute.

Oh so many Sam feels... These are good ones though! It's nice to have something to counteract his canon position a little, and imagine him loved, surrounded by comrades, with the kind of social support that I think he really needs and has been sorely missing. Someone like Kubard is happy with his own company for a time but I can't help but think Sam feels best when he has people he is close to nearby.

This does sound like a big improvement on his canon situation right now. I cannot express how much I want to see Sam's pride at seeing Hilmes grow into the person he hoped he would, the ruler he felt he had the potential to be. 😭

And yeah it totally feels like Kubard would fight alongside the clan in a situation like that; it's a little like him teaming up with Merlaine, or killing off Lusitanians bandits causing trouble.

Also the idea of Eihon whacking Zandeh with a stick is absolutely comedic and I love it and he probably deserved it but I imagine he'd be a bit crestfallen nonetheless ...like a puppy that's just been disciplined lmao

[justaduckarts]

Hi! Dropping to to gush about Star Holder real quick because I just binged all of the contents I could get my hands on.

I specifically want to talk about Lunar because OH MY GOD I love the character building you’ve done with him. Funny, secretly unhinged, bit quick to judge but obviously does everything to ensure the safety and happiness of the people he’s close to. “Trickster” type characters are my weakness, Lunar is no exception. Idk why but his little “sorry to disappoint, but I’m letting you down” joke has been stuck in my head since I read it. He’s absolutely feral and I love that about him. Also, as a snake parent, I love Tempest.

You don’t have to, but if you’re willing to share some facts or headcanons about him I’d very much love that! Love this AU a lot!

Hello! Firstly:

Thank you so so much! I'm so so glad you enjoyed the story so far!! Star Holder is very near and dear to my heart and I'm so happy people have been having fun with it!

Next: LUNAR.

Ohohoh THIS IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER in Star Holder AU. He is. Amazing. SO! I will absolutely indulge you in some fun facts! <3

Most already know this but Lunar wasn't a planned character. He spawned from the ether and grasped me by the shoulders and said "write."

Lunar's favorite number is the number five! He really likes things to be in odd numbers. Just itches his brain right.

Lunar chose Tempest as his familiar when he was quite young; he was out in his mother's garden, happened to find a cool snake, and thought "we're gonna be friends!"

Lunar loves sweets, but his absolute favorite foods are sour <3 He would be so excited for sour candy.

While Lunar is fiercely protective of Pluto now, it didn't start out that way at all. Much like with the Star Holder, he judged her before knowing her. However, she melted his heart pretty quick. (And who is surprised?)

Lunar gets shoulder cramps a lot.

The blue threads Lunar uses to weave illusions are manifested from the element which Lunar's magic is tied to. Lightning. :)

Lunar's circlet is a family heirloom. He never goes anywhere without it.

Lunar's cane, much like Sun's sword and Eclipse's spear, is a sacred item hand-crafted by another god. However, his cane is made of wood. I wonder how carved it? :)

Like Pluto, Lunar didn't grow up with the other gods! He grew up in a rural area.

Lunar is also the youngest of our main cast of gods. Not by much, though!

Hey did you notice Lunar doesn't wear any red? Pluto Doesn't either. I wonder what that's about?

Along with his capacity for illusions, Lunar's also a skilled lockpick!

I think these are all the ones I can give you without giving away anything TOO major. :) I hope you enjoy tumbling these around in your brain! Thank you so much for this ask!

[allaboardthevespa]

Dumping my Gabby HCs because she's my comfort character

Her full name is Gabriella Helena Myszka.

Growing up her family moved around in Poland a lot. Usually to cities, but Gabby always liked hanging out in parks and forests when she could. It’s how she grew to love nature.

When her family eventually decided to move overseas to Canada, she cried a lot because Poland felt like a comfy, safe place to her. Of course she’s glad it happened now. Even back in Poland she struggled making friends, and meeting Ellie truly changed her world for the better

Given her mental health struggles, issues with making friends and familial neglect, she’s developed a very bad tendency to have nightmares frequently. This decreased when she met Ellie, but she still has them on occasions. (I wrote a whole fanfic about this after all)

Her favorite artists include Girl in Red, Cavetown, Billie Eilish (she definitely cries to “happier than ever”) and Folklore/Evermore era Taylor Swift. Though Ellie's getting her into Dashboard Confessional yes this is me projecting

Along with a love of all animals, her nature-loving personality gives her a real soft spot for flowers. I’ve mentioned before that tulips and hyacinths are among her favorites, but she likes flowers in general. Especially of the fragrant variety. There’s not much that brings her more peace and happiness than breathing the sweet scent of her favorite flowers – and she loves wearing flower crowns too.

She’s pretty emotional and tends to cry easily. For example, one time she ended up watching Where the Red Fern Grows with some other people and she was so completely emotionally broken by it that she was left crying for hours on end.

Is incredibly touch-starved and often asks Ellie to give her hugs and cuddles because man she needs them

Is extremely ticklish and loves being tickled. Pretty much always loses the tickle-fights between her and Ellie too, lol (pretty sure it’s on purpose)

GIANT Bluey fan. Loves Puffin Rock and Elinor Wonders Why as well

She generally prefers rural, less crowded areas to big busy areas. Being in a busy city for too long (especially away from area) causes her panic attacks relatable. She much prefers staying in the warmth of nature, with her closest friends accompanying her

Her favorite Pokemon include Butterfree, Meganium, Sawsbuck, and Meowscarada hmm, I wonder what her favorite type is

She’s always really wanted a dog. Her dad is allergic and mean, though

Big advocate for supporting small businesses. Unless they cut down a bunch of trees to put up a store lol

Can sing but it depends on the situation. When she’s quiet she sings really well, when she’s loud…windows will shatter

Owns mountains of stuffed animals. Her favorite being a pink crab Squishmallow who she’s named Sherbert

Gets very competitive when playing board/video games!

After watching season 2 of DC her favorite characters ended up being Kai, Maggy, Tess and Lake (and she had something of a love-hate thing towards Karol lol)

Enjoys all weather. Loves to go out and dance in the rain. Tends to get sick as a result but she doesn’t care, it’s fun and besides, now she has Ellie to look after her!

Would love to live in a peaceful cabin deep in a beautiful nature-y place with her beloved Ellie someday.

[ofmermaidstories]

Merms!!! I am so exited about reader’s love of fresh produce you’ve got planned for sho’s fic!! I work on a nonprofit farm and conservation center and am sooo passionate about sustainable growing and regional veggies and herbs and plants so I’m very very exited that’s a lil nugget you’re putting in!! Not that it’ll be like the star of the show but those little glimpses and specificities are always so fun and full of life!

Anyways hehe visit your local farm stand(s) everyone if it’s available to you! A lot of places (around me, and my farm at least!) have programs and partners to help with food security so you can get free or discounted produce! And everyone there will prob be willing to chat about plants and growing or info on local food security initiatives, we give some of the harvest to the community and one of our neighbor’s focus is solely on food security!! Anyways RAHHH APOLOGIES I care abt this a lot and got up on a soap box 😭

Don’t apologise! Passion is good, and this is such an important thing to be passionate about. 🥺 Omg working on a farm though—I grew up on one so I can only imagine how hard you must work!!! I still live in a rural area now—although not as rural as East-Jesus-Nowhere when I was a kid—so I’m pretty lucky to have access to a lot of local produce!!! Especially with inflation hitting and raising prices. 😭 I shouldn’t complain though; my bestie was back home last week, visiting, and she was floored that sweet potatoes were like, $2.99 a kilo at the fruit shop—whereas apparently she was paying about $10 back in New Zealand? Dire 😭

You must do a lot of good work with your conservation and your non-profit. 🥺 All this talk of gardening tho makes me think of Carly Burd, that British woman who was harvesting from a little allotment and using the veggies she was growing to make up boxes to hand out to people who needed them—until some bastard salted the land!!! 😡 I hope they’re eventually outted—imagine having scum like that walk around among you! And you have to be scum, to have a problem with someone helping others feed themselves. idk, in Australia at least we waste so much produce just because it’s not pretty enough for the shelves or is a bit smaller than what the supermarkets want or it has to be thrown out EOD, and it’s so devastating because we’re such a big country—we can afford to feed our own, and we don’t. 🥺 I hate it!!!! I’ll stop myself there before I really get going, lmfao, but I just wanted to say your work sounds meaningful. 🥺 At the end of the day, getting yourself fed is the main thing, whether it’s from a packet of frozen Dollartree beans or a fresh bag of ‘em off the farm, but—it’s good that there’s farmers and programs and people out there trying to do what they can. 🥺💕

(Just for you, Anon, I’ll make sure our Reader for Shouto’s fic gets her veggies as local as she can 💕)

[weatherman667]

Climate Change

Long Post

Climate Change is a completely and utterly bullshit term.  What they mean is Global Warming.  The reason they changed it is the Global Warming is something that can actually be MEASURED.  And if it can be measured, it can be refuted.

Every time a major weather event happens, people bring it out as proof of Global Warming, without the slightest effort to look into the data.  I live in an area that became a worldwide exemplar for how Global Warming is killing us, but the fun thing is I’ve lived here my entire life.  We had a similar heat dome 25-ish years ago.  The reason it had record temperatures was that it happened earlier in the year than the last heat wave.

The Canadian government also uses REARWARD PROJECTIONS to prove the veracity of it’s forward projections for temperature.  What this means is that we cannot believe anything the Canadian government says about temperature data.  For the record, before the government did this, the temperature graph was basically flat.

Just before the change happened, there was a study that looked at mostly rural sites around the country, and showed no change.

But wait, is Carbon Dioxide a greenhouse gas or not?

Yes, yes, yes it is.  And yes, for a time, the increase in global temperatures did match the increase in Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere.

So, Global Warming is real then?

First, to put it into perspective, the three biggest contributors to global temperature, other than the Sun, obviously, (we’ll get to that later), is:

Water Vapour

Rayleigh Scattering

All Other Gases.

Carbon Dioxide is the biggest contributor from All Other Gases, but Oxygen and Ozone also apply.

Gas light absorption graphs are logarithmic.  You need an order more gas to produce a linear increase in absorption.  What this means is that at a minimum, for Carbon Dioxide to absorb more light, we’d need to double the current levels, and 10 times is not out the realm of the possible.

Before we jumped on the Global Warming bandwagon without any proof, (more on that later), the scientific consensus is that we were likely going towards a new ice age.

None of these theories are mutually exclusive.  We added Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere, and put off Glaciation, and then Carbon Dioxide reached saturation, (reached a point that it would require 10x more to increase the Greenhouse Gas Effect it can produce).

No onto some other issues that are often brought up as counterproof for Global Warming:

Acid Rain:  We restricted the chemicals that were making acid rain.  We did a fantastic job of cleaning up our emissions, until we started worrying about Carbon Dioxide.

Hole in the Ozone:  This was caused by CFC’s, and we banned them.  And the Ozone layer healed everywhere but Australia.

By contrast, CO2 is, literally, plant food.  A number of green houses use CO2 generators because higher concentrations of CO2 allows them to grow more.

Alright, let’s say we want to stop producing CO2.  Even if not for Global Warming, then as my father suggested, to save some carbon for when we’ll risk going back to glaciation.  So, we want to reduce our carbon emissions, what do we do?

Solar Power:  This takes a of energy to create.  There are other problems, but the biggest one is that we don’t have storage.  California has too much solar power, as they cannot store it for usage when they actually need it.

Wind Power:  We are doing this in an insanely stupid way.  I’m seriously, most wind turbines are the worst way we would do it.  Wind Power is also highly temperamental, and we don’t have a good way of storing it.

These both work on smaller scales, and are something we can slowly lean into, but they cannot provide most of our power.  Actually, we can learn from Germany.  Germany had the highest amount of power from renewables in the world, and decided to increase the ratio.  The rest of their power was from nuclear, so they shuttered nuclear power plants to replace them with solar and wind.  But, solar and wind are temperamental, and you need something that can quickly spin up to make up for any shortfall.  And that is fossil fuels.

So, Germany trades nuclear for fossil fuels, which they were getting from Russian.  And then the Ukraine war started, and the US convinced the EU to no longer pay Russia for gas.  And that’s how you get an energy crisis.

Nuclear Power:  Canada solved all of the problems with Nuclear Power in the 60′s.  And I do mean all of them.  CANDU reactors CANNOT go critical, cannot meltdown, and can use natural uraniums, so they don’t need enrichment.  Nuclear power is the only method we can quickly scale up for out usage.  Quite frankly, if we are going to replace fossil fuels, this is the only method of producing power we can use to do it.  Like I said, Solar and Wind can be developed slowly, but we need to work on storage.

The best / only way to store power in the grid currently is pumped hydro.  Which works, extremely well, but the problem is that regions that can use pumped hydro can just use hydroelectric dams.  Hydroelectric dams and geothermal power are both fantastic, but you have to have the right environment.

How can we store power?

Lithium:  It works.  It’s extremely expensive, extremely inflammable, and we probably don’t have enough for the entire world’s needs.

Hydrogen:  Hydrogen fuel cells work.  Hydrogen combustion engines work.  Hydrogen never went away.

Synthetic Fuel:  One of the major car racing organizations, (can’t remember which one), is planning to switch to wind-generated synthetic fuel that is made using atmospheric gases, (primarily CO2), and water.

And now for electric cars.  If everyone switched to electric cars, it would be better for the environment?  No.  Ignoring the fact that a lot of people cannot use electric cars, the switch would cost most energy than we would save.  Gasoline cars can work for 20 years without a problem.  Electric / hybrid cars typically need a battery replacement after 5 years, which is often the same value as the car at that time.  This means you cannot buy the car for any price, as you will have to shell out thousands, (maybe tens of thousands for a truck), for a used car.  I bought my first car for $1,000.  I traded it in for $500.  Not only are we locking most people out of the car market, but we are making it so that financially, you might as well just buy a new car.  For electric cars (US):

New Nuclear Power Plant every 2 weeks for 20 years.

Quadruple the electrical infrastructure in all regions, without taking growth into account.

Have every - single - apartment building have individual garage stalls that can have a charger hooked up.

Even then, it’s still terrible for people living up North, as the cold takes a HUGE amount of power from the batteries.  With gasoline cars, we use waste heat from the engine to heat the cabin.

[entertext]

HGSN 14 (1-2)

I did 14-3 earlier

Rough translation by me

14-1

Raw chapter

P1

(sfx: frogs croaking)

(sfx: insect chirping)

P2

Takeda: You'd better not make any funny moves while I've got my eye on you...

Tanaka: Yes, of course not.

Takeda: ... you said you can make a barrier or whatnot right? Can't you put some up in the village?

Tanaka: Ahhh, you mean the one on Mikasa's shrine

Tanaka: In order to make one of those, one of my organs gets taken. I can't make as many as I please.

Takeda: Or- Organs?

P3

Tanaka: I don't have the slightest hint of a sixth sense or anything, heh, so this is how I do things

Tanaka: It's much more powerful than the way the company recommends too

Takeda: Is that mark from that as well?

Tanaka: Yeah, that's right. It was "taken" in my line of work. Sometimes it grows bigger, but its fine

Takeda: ...

Tanaka: Ah! Here it is.

P4

Takeda: Some kind of hokora...?

(sfx: stomp)

Tanaka:  Hey! hey!

P5

Takeda: !?

Takeda: What the hell are you doing, you bastard!

Mouse: Squeak!

Tanaka: Looks like its still underneath here.

(sfx: rummage)

(sfx: shing)

P6

Takeda: !!

(sfx : slice)

(sfx: ding-a-ling)

(sfx: squeeze)

P7

(sfx: toss)

Takeda: Wha...what are you doing?

Tanaka: This is a hunting dog

Tanaka: That thing, you call it "Nounuki-sama" here?

Tanaka: We're going to have the thing in here hunt it down

Tanaka: This kind of "impurity" should tend to move towards it.

P8

Takeda: "Tanaka"...

Takeda: I can't imagine he'll be any good for the village... one day...

Takeda: ...

Takeda: ... But, does some part of me want that?

14-2

Raw chapter

P1

(sfx: cicada noises)

(sfx: players shouting - "Hey!" "Let's get started" "Okay~")

Tezuka: Oh my, Tsujinaka-kun?

P2

Yoshiki: Ms. Tezuka

Tezuka: I see you're not in the study room today. It's rare to see you doing club activities.

Yoshiki: Most of the people in the photography club are members in name only...

Yoshiki: Someone just happened to ask me to help out today

Tezuka: Oh, I see, that's a shame, I liked the photo you submitted to the culture festival last year

Tezuka: The one you took of that church

Yoshiki: Oh... Thank you very much.

P3

Yoshiki: Now that you mention it, there are a lot of churches here. Isn't that unusual for such a rural town?

Tezuka: Ah-, well about that...

Tezuka: The area around here is where persecuted Christians fled during the Edo Period

Tezuka: That's why there are old churches here. They're still active today.

(sfx: cicada noises)

Yoshiki: Huh...

Yoshiki: Oh... so Mr. Kameyama's family is also one of them

Yoshiki: Huh? But why weren't they persecuted here?

Tezuka: I wonder? I've heard it was difficult for the feudal lords to interfere here, maybe that's why?

Tezuka: It's true that it was a place with religious activity, historically speaking

P4

A place difficult for the feudal lords to interfere with...

---

(fireworks package: Ultimate★Sparkler★Demon King - Extra Large!!)

Maki: "Ultimate★Sparkler★Demon King!" "Super Sweet Fun!"

Maki: I want to do this one!

P5

Yuuki: Hikaru's place is so big

Asako: Yeah

Hikaru: Is it?

(sfx: windchime ringing)

Yoshiki: You guys must have had a hard time coming all the way out here to sleep over

Maki: Well, its the weekend and our parents drove, so its no problem at all!

Yuuki: Ah, Hikaru, do you have a hairdryer?

Hikaru: You can use my mom's.

Hikaru: Yoshiki, can you grab one of the games from my room?

Yoshiki: Is "Nashitetsu" okay?

Hikaru: Yeah

P6

(sfx: slide)

P7

(sfx: floor creaking)

Yoshiki: Nothing's changed

(sfx: thump)

Yoshiki: This hat... I've seen it somewhere before...

(hat: Matsushima Lumbermill)

---

So we should be up-to-date with the current release now. I'll do future chapters as time allows.

Feel free to let me know of any errors or ask any questions...

[kuwdora]

January 6 - how are your plants doing? -bironic

Oh man. I used to post a lot about my plants on Twitter and then I stopped because of my burnout and my plants suffered. And then TweetDeck went kaput and I stopped posting on Twitter altogether. (I'm on bluesky now.)

So! Some updates:

A few of my plants have died - the ones that needed more water than others. So I'm very sad about the loss of my Tradescantia spathacea which I had managed to keep alive for 3 years. But at least my succulents are still alive, woo. My spider plants are doing well, too. Tessy is still doing population control and eating my spider pups, though I still have a few pups I need to transplant into a bigger pot and find someone to adopt them. Though I wonder how many spider plants could I reasonably fill the apartment with if I really tried? Hehe.

But yeah…my burnout and anxiety meant I didn't give enough time to my plants because I just lost the threads of everything while grinding in dozens of interviews. Quite a few need to be repotted and/or pruned. My peanut cactus gave me its first ever flower this past year which was cute and spectacular surprise (I hadn't gotten them to flower at all since I've had them). But I def need to split up the peanut cactus into some more pots because they just keep growing and getting root bound.

I did have a spot of trouble with some of my plants that was unexpected.

I have neighbors who are a queer couple and moved in sometime early last year I think. I came outside to get my mail and saw them crouched on the ground in front of their apartment. And then a squirrel hopped down from the railing and walked into the guy’s hand for a treat. I watched these guys with this squirrel for awhile and they were precious and enamored with the critter. The guys told me they felt like Disney princesses when she shows up for food. It was the cutest fucking thing to witness. Apparently the squirrel had started coming around and been reacting to the one guy’s voice. So they’ll have their window open and she’ll come and settle on a ledge and they come out and feed her.

A few weeks later the squirrel’s kids started showing up behind her. The kids are very messy eaters but they’ve all started getting habituated to people, far more than my liking. I grew up in a rural area where red squirrels destroyed sheds and doors and bird feeders. I did not want any of that to be my problem. Alas.

These kiddo squirrels are very cute and all and indeed they do like coming around and getting peanuts from their fanboys. One of these squirrels likes to use my stairs and my plant shelves as a shortcut to the roof to hop onto the branches of the nearby trees. He has knocked over a half dozen of my plants so far on his way up.

Thankfully none of the pots ever broke because they fell into my hibiscus bush, but it broke nearly all the branches of my meagerly flowering hibiscus. I really needed to prune the bush anyway, but my main concern was for the 8” and 6” terracotta pots the squirrel kept knocking over. A few of my succulents lost some pieces and I really should be propagating them but in the meantime I'm WTFing about this squirrel. Cause we'll open our door and just find him hanging out on the top shelf.

I've found peanut shells in my plants, lol.

This little squirrel has the gall to come and sit on the stairs and chatter at me and make other huffy noises. I’ve never fed him, never leave food out. But he gives me very bossy entitled vibes. I’ve relocated the heavier plants away from those shelves because I can’t seem to stop him from climbing.

My hibiscus bush has some new growth which is nice, so I’ll be trying to take better care of that. And taking better care of the rest of my plants. I lost track of so many things over the past year and a half. But I know focusing on my plants always makes me feel better so I just gotta keep on with it.

I also need to make some more acrylic pours for my terracotta! So much fun.

peanut plant photo:

eehee thank you my little squirrel kiddo for leaving your peanut shells in my plants. It's been shells in like 4 different plants now.

January posting meme + claim a date - prompt me. Still open dates!