#this is a personal one

[amaliatheartist]

[absinthehoney]

they bought the house down the road. deep in the crick, down in the ravine. it sits in this little valley of indented earth, now barren and lifeless. 

this little yellow house on display for highway rats scurrying this way and that. to school. to work. or back. the wrap around porch had a blanket of white latticework to shade the little old man inside from the choking California sun. there was a chain-link fence too, these lush dark vines of every kind threaded throughout the gaps in the metal. it was barely waist high, a sorry attempt at keeping anyone out since the gate was always kept open wide. it was mostly for the sake of the fat little tabby cats that wove their way in and out of his garden during the day. i’d spy their grey, tiger stripped bodies lounging about on the stone walkways or trotting after the little old man as he hobbled to prune his joy and pride.

the garden. god, the garden. the rose bushes had almost entirely taken over the yard, growing wild and out of control. they climbed up and over the walls of the home and wormed their thorny fingers beneath the roof tiles. the flowers bloomed in agony, pouring every last ounce of love they had for the man into their short spring time lives. 

“we adore you!” the red flowers, as big as my open palm said

“you’ve been so good to us,” the pink flowers crooned.

“we know you’ll get better soon. we know it, we know it,” the white flowers said in shaking whispers, as their petals had already began to fall. 

Peppermint had invaded the yard, springing up in every pot and darkened corner of the yard, but it too hid away dormant in the warmer months of the year. It would return in the winter with the slyness of an old, always welcome friend.

But the lavender, the beautiful tangled mass of lavender couldn’t seem to get enough of the heat. It reached its spires of purple buds up to the heavens. “look at me,” it said “look what I can do. i do it for you, for our home! i love you, i love you!”. only when sun grew hot enough to create a heat mirage on the highway would the buds burst open into a million tiny, indigo flowers. The woody, sweet, and spicy scent of the blooms would fills the air and drift over to the neighboring homes with the nighttime breeze. along with it I could heat the creaking of a porch rocking chair the padding of tiny paws on its old boards. 

the day it happened the grass went brown, from wild and green to a shriveled mass of brown overnight, they figured he’d been so sick that he must have forgotten to water. forgotten fertilizer. forgotten something because no matter what they tried; nothing could revive the earth. i knew better. 

the garden mourned for a year, bushes and planters slumped over with the weight of grief and overgrowth. ‘father’ i heard the ground whimper ‘father, father, father’ unsure of where it was the little old man had gone. it turned to a rainy winter and the tabby cats yowled at the back door to be let in most nights. they wanted to curl up by a woodstove that no longer burned, by the feet of their man who was no longer alive. i watched them turn skinny and feral with wild, untrusting eyes. their shiny coats became matted with burs and underbrush. their dinners came from blood and sinewy instead of the man’s old china plates. by the time anyone had thought to do anything about them, they were already too far gone. too wild. too untrusting of any hand resembling that which abandoned them. 

a family bought the little yellow house a while back. i know now just as i knew then that the land can hate just as it loves. i felt the flowers cry out in disgust as the overfilled station wagon trundled up the driveway. ‘not you, not you. you don’t belong. not you’. 

the roses were first to go. the father began amputating the limbs of the bushes that had wrapped themselves around the house. too unclean. unruly. he lopped them off one by one until the ancient giants had been cut down into knee high shrubs. they turned a sickly yellow, wilted, and petrified into a decaying black within the week. they had to be torn out by the roots and burned come fall.

the raised garden beds were neglected and shrived into dust while the family spread their empty boxes and plastic bubble wrap around the yard. the mother came our with a barrel of Round-Up and sprayed at the vines in the fence until they too choked to death and rotted away. the trash only piled up, turning from boxes to old tires and styrofoam blocks and sickly, bulging garbage bags. An ugly plastic children’s slide. disembodied Barbie arms. the lavender turned pale and anemic when an old, rusted up project car was parked in front of it, next to the abandoned pop-up camper van. the only sun it saw came from the splash of evening light, seconds before it disappears behind the mountains. so it no longer bloomed or spread its sweet summer scent. 

Eden has turned to a valley of barren ash and the Millers wonder why nothing will fucking grow from their earth. Wonder why they had to pay thousands for their fluorescent green lawn of AstroTurf. Wonder why no matter how many times they paint the home, how the white always peels away from the walls. Wonder why the animals circle the home like vultures, but never step foot on it. 

Shame about the christmas fire. 

Horrible

Dreadful. 

Hear the family had to move away, the flames burning so high and bright that nothing remained. 

But see I stopped by the remains of little yellow house the other day to see a scruffy feline rolling around in the ash. And in the charred remains of the porch, I saw it: a thin sprig of peppermint worming its way out of the soil. ‘i’m home old friend. i’m home, I’m home.’

[tariah23]

Oh…. Well, it’s over for Crunchyroll I guess

[cadaverkeys]

You guys rlly don't realise how much knowledge is still not committed to the internet. I find books all the time with stuff that is impossible to find through a search engine- most people do not put their magnum opus research online for free and the more niche a skill is the less likely you are to have people who will leak those books online. (Nevermind all the books written prior to the internet that have knowledge that is not considered "relevant" enough to digitise).

Whenever people say that we r growing up with all the world's knowledge at our fingertips...it's not necessarily true. Is the amount of knowledge online potentially infinite? Yes. Is it all knowledge? No. You will be surprised at the niche things you can discover at a local archive or library.

[noelledeltarune]

EVERY SINGLE DAY there are MILLIONS of characters in their late 20s who get falsely accused of being father figures to teenagers when in reality the description of "weird older cousin" or "step-sibling that moved out before you were born" is 1000000x more apt

[rat-presenting]

You ever just wake up from an incredibly graphic and realistic nightmare that was a pure psychological horror based on your own personal phobias and trauma and just roll over like “aw shit I got too hot last night I guess.” And then make toast like you didn’t just experience the nine circles of hell before 9 am

[kosmogrl]

[miseria-fortes-viros]

yoooo guys these wings my dad made look INSANE i can’t wait to try them tomorrow

[marypsue]

Keep seeing that post where OP starts like 'Thinking about...grieving the undead' and then adds on about like. Real life situations where people have not died but have left your life and you would have reason to grieve them.

All respect, that's an important concept, but that is not what I am thinking about when I read 'grieving the undead'.

[haroldhighballjordan]

sometimes I randomly think about the time a girl posted in this girls only Facebook group I’m in telling everyone how she broke up with her boyfriend and he lied saying that he lost the spare key she gave him, only to then break into her apartment when she wasn’t home and steal the cat they’d adopted while they were together, but then he denied having done this and she didn’t really have proof that he took the cat since he wouldn’t let her come into his place and look for it. And then another girl saw this post and knew her ex-boyfriend, and she was like “girl. I used to hook up with your mans back in xxxx and I still have his number. If you want, I’ll hit him up and get him to invite me back to his place and see if your cat’s there.” And the OP was like “bet.”

So this woman hit up homie dog, asked him out for drinks, went home with him, slept with him, and then woke up in the middle of the night and TOOK THE CAT. Like she had only said that she would confirm if the cat was there but then she took it upon herself to steal this woman’s cat back. Like she full on Trojan horsed this man and then hit up homegirl like “I got the goods. Where you wanna meet.” And then the two of them posted a photo of them together with the cat to the group.

And I just think women supporting women is so beautiful.

[cozystars]

!!! BUILT LIKE BILBO BAGGINS !!!

[shaftking]

Ao3 is actually massively culturally important and very very good at being what it is. I’m so serious when I say that ao3 needs to be protected as the anti censorship, by fans for fans, nonprofit, volunteer run, expertly designed archival site that it is. You don’t have to read or like fanfiction to understand that on principle, ao3 is a site that should be defended.

[ibtisams]

My father was martyred by Israel on 10 October 2023 after sacrificing his care in hospital so the injured children could take priority. Today would have been his 60th birthday. He was always selfless, kind, and giving for others. My father gave up everything for me to be able to have a better life, because that is what he always dreamed for me and my sister. The world suffered a great loss when he died, and my heart is always with him and every Palestinian who has lost someone.

In his honour and memory, I would love for anyone who is able to do so to consider donating to The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

The PCRF is an amazing organisation that does so much for those in Gaza right now, including helping provide food, water and medicine. You can donate any amount you are able to- there is no minimum! My father would have given his very last cent if he saw the way Palestine was continuing to suffer after over 100 days with this limited aid, so I know celebrating him by helping others is the least he would have wanted.

I saw @parrot-parent do a very successful donation match and I thought it was such a good idea so I will also match all donations up to $500! If you feel comfortable sending me proof of the amount of your donation, I will match it as a donation at the end of February. (My messages are set to mutuals only, but if you donate and we aren’t mutuals if you send an ask with the proof I will make sure to answer it privately.)

[toskarin]

oh I didn't realize you used to be a huge piece of shit

[bixels]

Baffled.

[transgayhawkeyepierce]

Everyone reblog with your most unemployable traits