#putting up fences

[living-with-bipolar]

Life truly lived is a risky business, and if one puts up too many fences against risk one ends up shutting out life itself.

Kenneth s. Davis

[hedgehog-moss]

Just some animal friends hanging out on a balmy May afternoon :)

[mio-the-clown]

This was originally gonna be the last comic I did but then I got carried away. So have a scene of 3 of my favorites baking together.

Giraffe this one’s for u

[ventiswampwater]

What do you want from me? What have I done? I'm just a word processor, for Christ sake!

Griffin Dunne as Paul Hackett AFTER HOURS (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese

[barksbog]

when you're a big dramatic collie but the neighbours ducks outside the fence refuse to listen to you so you have to throw a tantrum about it

[darkwood-sleddog]

more and more i become of the opinion my dogs are not reactive to strange dogs but in fact it is unreasonable to expect them to NOT be reactive when the dogs we pass are unwalked, understimulated rural hellions that thrash at the windows of their houses, bark at us and follow us for entire lengths of properties, snarl at us, run at us with tense body language etc.

is this because a neighbor (who does skijor!) moved in half mile down the road from us a half a year ago with the most polite, unreactive dog that my dogs glance calmly at as they walk by? as it is unrestrained (no underground fence) on the property? absolutely is.

is this because a few years ago a neighbor's very nice pitbull mix got out and when it walked up to us with polite calm body language my dogs reacted just as calm and we were able to walk this dog home? absolutely is.

like i am a human woman and have lived in areas with much larger populations than i do now. i remember being followed by strangers, yelled at by strangers in aggressive ways. it made me tense and yes...reactive in those moments to ensure my own safety and needs were met. but was it my fault for having to react that way? To call friends and family and be on the phone any time that i walked alone? to check in when i got to where i was going? to bring pepper spray and iron knuckles to walk less than 10 minutes away from home? I don't think it is. Rather it's the failure that allows that behavior towards me which is at fault. i should not have had to carry those things with me. or call a single soul.

same with my dogs. my dogs aren't reactive, i'm just the only person who walks my damn dogs in my rural neighborhood. even though we can walk for 4+ miles either way on safe dirt roads out of our driveway before we reach pavement. nobody else. walks. their. fucking. dogs. yes i manage my dogs behaviors, it can be embarrassing when they get riled up, but know what? it is not their fault so many other dogs fucking SUCK. and it is not those dogs' fault that they suck either. i encountered more politely behaved dogs when i lived in the suburbs and city than i do now because those dogs at least had some sort of experience with being around other dogs (passing them on the sidewalk even) out of necessity. Rural people truly just throw their dogs outside and expect that to be enough. if you're lucky they install a little underground fence that will maybe keep fido in the yard (like uwu WE don't want to have a look at a fence and we're going to make all our neighbors GUESS if our dog might run into the road at them uwu).

[ghouljams]

I absolutely love the thought of Price being there so much and gently pushing the threshold that eventually the threshold/ward thinks that’s he’s meant to be there. And if he can get away with it I bet your ass that he ain’t telling Witch shit until it’s the perfect opportunity for him to pounce and claim his prize.

You really hate to do this, but it feels necessary. At this point you shouldn’t have to dig into your new home rituals, the page in your grimoire has seen little use outside of client requests. Its words are still neatly inked in, no sun bleaching that you can detect, and no dog ears or creases. You scratch your head, pulling herbs(Marjoram, Rosemary, Oregano) and referencing your grimoire as you grind them down. You feel like a new witch, eyes glued to your books, unsure of your talents. It’s not a pleasant feeling, then again neither is the waving threshold. Every time you test it it’s as strong as ever, but as soon as Price is around…

That man is making more trouble for you than you’d thought he would. You suppose that’s his job in a way. Doesn’t he have anyone better to try and trap? You twist the pestle against the herb mix, move the crushed leaves with your finger to see how fine they’ve been ground. He must have someone better to bother. You reach for your rosy pink bottle of thorns and hesitate. A threat isn’t a threat if you can’t follow up on it, and a ward is just a warning if it doesn’t bite. You shake a few thorns into your mortar, breathe your intentions over the edge as you pick it up. 

You are warding your house and that’s final, no more putting it off, no more running from Price. You’re going to be a responsible adult and take care of yourself. No one is going to do it for you. You carry your mortar out to the garden and pinch out thorns and herbs to sprinkle at the four corners of it. The threshold lights up pleasantly, accepting the reinforced magic. You pat the roses idly as you pass them, thanking them for their sacrificed thorns. You stall by the gate, staring at the ivy patterns, the overgrown iron. 

A smart witch might trip the leaves back, reveal the metal underneath so wayward hands don’t try to unlatch it. Your skin prickles with chill at the thought. That feels like a definite answer, one you don’t want to give. It feels like an end to the conversation. Why does the thought that he might never get into your garden seem so unappealing? That’s the best outcome. Price is supposed to stay on his side of the gate. 

“You’re thinking awful hard about something,” He tells you, his deep voice running more chills over you.

“I’m warding the garden,” You respond, still considering the implications of a bare iron gate.

“Fancy.” He doesn’t even sound mad. Did you think he’d be mad? Should he be mad? “Against what?”

“Against you,” You tell him honestly, as is your policy. Although times like these you wonder why magic seems so keen on the truth.

“I’m flattered,” Price’s smile is always evident in his voice, even when you’re not looking at him. He taps the threshold, and you feel it like he touched you instead. The thin bow of it, the pressure and ripples it sends through the rest of the barrier. He touches it like it’s nothing. More thorns, you think. 

“It shouldn’t do that,” You look up at him finally, moving closer to inspect the air between you, “Are you doing something to it?”

“What would I be doing?” He asks, and you don’t really have an answer for that. You hum, upset that you don’t know. “Come on smart girl,” Price mumbles, you shake your head.

“No you’re right, it’s silly.” You sigh, but it’s not. You’re so wickedly clever, so fucking observant, if you just put a little more thought into it Price is sure you’d realize it was him. Couldn’t you feel it? The way the threshold was starting to question him? The way your new thorns hesitated to prick him? How your wards seem to shiver right at the edge of acceptance?

If you let him touch you again he’s sure you’d know immediately. You’d feel the way he’s been working your wards, pushing them just a little further every time he sees you. Your threshold noticing his presence over and over, never pushing for entry, but there. You’d even let him in once, is he supposed to be let in? 

Price rubs his knuckles against the edge of the threshold, just to watch you shiver. Generations of magic lick at his hand like a dog. Magic is always a reflection of its owner. What must you be thinking about when he isn’t around? He wonders. 

Still, it’s a hard barrier, it knows better than to let in uninvited guests and non-residents. Another tether from you, or another few grants of entry might do the trick. The real issue is what to do once he can cross, so many options, all of them sure to make you squirm.

[eff-plays]

"Durge and Astarion are canon your honor!"

Well canon Durge is a white male dragonborn sorcerer and yet y'all are making cute little drow girlies and sexy little tiefling twinks to get at that extra content so what's the truth?

Oh that your personal preferences are somehow more canon than someone else's because the devs didn't have enough time to write extra content for every companion, leaving an unfair and imbalanced emphasis on the one character that did get extra content? That you feel your choices are validated because they're reinforced by poor planning/game design? Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmm 🤔

[froghwon]

beware of baby tiger 🐯

[aomdc]

lalala frolicking

[discordiansamba]

the Kogane homestead, before and after

[chase-prairie]

I have a fuckton of invasive buckthorn, bunnies, and expensive rare plants. So I’ve been chopping down the buckthorn, weaving it into bunny fences, and having pretty decent success!

[little-eye-guy]

my shady carnies.....

[chiropteracupola]

it's not summer until you're risking life and limb in the quarry :)

[mumbledramblings]

Survival Horror Vash who i met in a dream

i had a dream last night where a group of people and i were trying to escape this weird and spooky abandoned facility that kept changing around us as we moved forward and partway through vash showed up and joined us. he was kinda weird, though. he looked a little different and he kept saying morbid things and acting like he knew us well and was always part of the group, and no one seemed to think that was suspicious except me.

at one point he found a couch and kept asking this guy to sit and have drinks with him, but the guy was convinced that if he did he'd get cursed and die.

the one time i interacted with him myself near the end of my dream (i think he was avoiding me) he was taking a knife to the bottom half of his coat, cutting it lengthwise and taking apart the layers. i asked him why he was doing that and he just said that he needed it [like that] and wouldn't elaborate and i couldn't investigate further bc i somehow found myself leading the group.

suspicious and inexplicable behaviour aside, i don't think he was ~secretly a bad guy~ or anything. just kinda weird and lonely and. maybe not entirely human. i do think he was genuinely trying to help us get out and maybe get himself out, too. but god he was kinda unnerving to be around.

[runespoor7]

this is nieyao to me

NMJ: i could fix him

JGY: you don't have to

NMJ: no i'm gonna