#(though i got a bit further in the period drama)

[fictionadventurer]

Adding Vanity Fair to the list of classic literature that I have avoided for far too long, because everyone talked about the serious parts and neglected to mention that it was hilarious.

Why was everyone telling me about Becky Sharpe, the scandalous and shocking anti-heroine (yuck), and never once mentioning the narrator who goes off on wonderfully absurd meta-tangents about the novel's structure and characters? It would be like talking about Wodehouse as if it were all from the POV of one of the scheming antagonists and failing to mention the wide cast of absurd characters and the quirky narration. Why does this kind of thing always happen with British literature specifically? Please let me know when books are funny, I'm begging you.

[lord-aldhelm]

Writing Interview Tag Game!

Thank you for the tag @bagheerita! This one has taken me a while to do since it is so long. As with the original post I have pasted the template below the "read more" cut so you can copy and paste if you want to do this.

About Me:

When did you start writing? Specifically for The Last Kingdom: it was sometime late in 2022, probably October or November. My original drafts kept getting over-written due to some stupid bug in Word which, when the auto-save was triggered, it would force me to save as a new document. So I have no idea exactly when, unfortunately. Besides this, I used to write a bit when I was a teenager, for my OC, but I never got further than a few chapters.

Are there different genres or themes you enjoy reading other than the ones you write? For fanfics: I mostly read TLK fanfics at the moment, and I suppose that falls under historical fiction/period drama. For genres, I like happy endings with some angst and mutual pining to make it interesting. For books: I am a fantasy nerd for sure.

Is there an author you want to emulate, or are compared to often? For fanfics I cannot think of one specifically, although reading fanfics has influenced the way I write. I have learned to incorporate more sensory descriptions in my writing, and trying to use more metaphors and poetic descriptions rather than the literal way of writing I normally do. For authors, I love JRR Tolkien, Tad Williams, and GRR Martin, so I suppose they influence me as well.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space? I write on my laptop in my home office, using Microsoft Word.

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse? Oh I cannot muster up a muse. They sneak up on me and invade my fantasies, highjacking my thoughts and holding me hostage until I write them down. lol! Although sometimes I might be inspired to write something based on a deranged convo with one of my friends, so there is that! Also, having people give me feedback on my writing definitely motivates me to write more.

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and/or places you write about? Not particularly. I grew up in a lower middle class family in the suburbs, not really very inspirational. I do however have a very vivid and overactive imagination.

Are there any reoccurring themes in your writing? If so, do they surprise you? I have not written very much so I cannot say for sure. I only have one long fic and a few smaller fics, and they all center around the same character. I do like to take a deep dive into character development and introspection though. I really love thinking about what motivates the characters, and their inner thoughts.

Characters

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character? Aldhelm... um... I have literally written whole entire essays about him so I won't go into detail here lmao!

Which of your characters would you be friends with in real life? Aldhelm for sure. He would be my bestie. And more...

Which characters would you dislike the most of you met them? Probably Aethelred.. he is such a whiny brat.

Tell me about the process of coming up with your characters? I am assuming this applies to OC's... which I have a few of in my stories! The first is Beohtric, which is Aldhelm's brother. Aldhelm needed a family and a backstory and I felt, most importantly, he needed an advocate, so I created Beohtric to be that person. Someone who supported Aldhelm and gave him some kind of center for his life. I have other OC's which are more kind of side characters created for a purpose, like Wulfstan in the fic about how Aldhelm became captain of the guard. Then there are other characters which are deceased at the time of writing, but I still came up with personalities and backstories for them because they were relevant to the plot. There is another major OC for a story I am working on, who is based on a few characters from other series/movies, as well as being a sort of alter-ego.

Do you notice any reoccurring themes/traits in your characters? Not particularly for my OC's, no? I mean I try to make them more three dimensional, and realistic. Not purely evil or not purely good. Having flaws as well as good characteristics.

How do you picture your characters? In my head? Sometimes I can form an image of them using an existing person as a template (character reference I think this is called?) But most of the time they are kind of generic.

My Writing:

What’s your reason for writing? The reason for writing my fanfics is because of my deep love for Aldhelm and The Last Kingdom, and the overwhelming urge to tell my own story about him. It started out as a series of daydreams that kind of spilled out into a Word document and then it all went downhill from there lol!

Is there any specific comment or type of comment from readers that you find particularly motivating? Anything! Any comments are welcome, even the generic "I love your fic!" types. Although I really love the people that take the time to go into detail about a particular scene or chapter and tell me what exactly they loved about it. That really makes my day!

How do you want to be thought about by your readers? That I am passionate about the characters in the stories that I write.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer? I suppose character development.

Have you been told is your greatest strength as a writer is by others? Writing a story that is easy to read, has good sensory descriptions, and a compelling storyline.

How do you feel about your own writing? I think it could be better, but I am definitely seeing improvements since I first started almost two years ago.

If you were the last person on earth, would you still write? Yeah I would. Because I write for myself. I love seeing my stories work themselves out on the page.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, do you write purely for yourself, or is it a mix of both? A little of both? I mostly write for myself, but I also consider if someone wants to read it. I try to make it enjoyable and interesting.

No pressure tags: @thelettersfromnoone @holy3cake @paula-in-dreamland @errruvande

@sihtricfedaraaahvicius @gemini-mama @foxyanon @grinningkatz @thenameswinter99

@alexagirlie @synintheraven @freddie-foxs @st-eve-barnes and whoever else wants to participate!

This took me FOREVER to do so I am not expecting that any of you will do this soon.

BLANK TEMPLATE:

About me

When did you start writing?

Are there different genres or themes you enjoy reading other than the ones you write?

Is there an author you want to emulate, or are compared to often?

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and/or places you write about?

Are there any reoccurring themes in your writing? If so, do they surprise you?

Characters

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character?

Which of your characters would you be friends with in real life?

Which characters would you dislike the most of you met them?

Tell me about the process of coming up with your characters?

Do you notice any reoccurring themes/traits in your characters?

How do you picture your characters?

My writing

What’s your reason for writing?

Is there any specific comment or type of comment from readers that you find particularly motivating?

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Have you been told is your greatest strength as a writer is by others?

How do you feel about your own writing?

If you were the last person on earth, would you still write?

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, do you write purely for yourself, or is it a mix of both?

[dailycass-cain]

So a few weeks ago I hit over 5,000 followers on Twitter. As promised, tonight I look into the history Cass has with Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon. By doing so I'll answer the question: is Cass more of a Gordon or a Wayne?

To fully answer this question we've got to start all the way to the beginning with "No Man's Land" the Batman event that introduced Cassandra into the Batman world. Though originally in the comics Cass didn't show up until midway into the event. The novel by Greg Rucka however-

--Cass is shown in the story early on.  The move plants the seeds of the bonds the two will share for quite a long time. Here's the section involving Cass from the audio drama based on the novel.

More so, it has to be understood that the novel is the first time Cass is called by her name, and it is Barbara who gives her it. As the comics only called her Batgirl or an agent of Babs at the time.

This bit is retconned later in Batgirl Vol. 1 with the name business being more associated with Cass making the connection that she and Lady Shiva share a similar first name and--

-- in Batman & Robin Eternal where David Cain is the one to give Cass her name.  

You could theorize the reason this was taken away was to further separate Cass from Babs (and we'll get to that portion) and balance the Shiva as Cass' mother revelation.

It should also be noted, Babs watches through NML and then realizes that someone has taken up the Batgirl mantle (Helena Bertinelli) and Bruce is okay with it. This sets off Babs as it wasn't given her approval.

When Helena makes three mistakes, she's sacked as Batgirl.  This is where Bruce enters our picture with Cass. It's this fallout that causes Two-Face to further try and heighten his power in NML by taking out Jim Gordon.

Leading to him hiring assassin David Cain and Cass being caught in the crosshairs as she saves the father of her guardian (Babs). It's thru foiling these two attempts and her method of ending the contract Two-Face put on Gordon that puts Cass on Bruce's radar.

With Bruce realizing he can't conquer NML problem on his own, decides he'll need the Bat-Family to fully assist him on this. However, comes the sacking of Helena as Batgirl.

The move is later retconned in "Batman knew what Helena would go and do" thus ensuring he didn't have to look out the area she was at. Plus conquer taking a stand against the Joker in the final month of NML.

But back to the Bat-Family gathering, with a new member a title had to be bestowed on her, and with Babs blessing, Cassandra Cain became the new Batgirl.

The next step in the evolution of both came with Batgirl Vol. 1 #1 as both Bruce/Babs were key to Cass's supporting cast in the comic. Bruce more the stern boss, while Babs the motherly figure that watched and helped her.

I think this distinction should be noted as well the fatherly aspect didn't really develop over in Cass's main book. Rather, Batman: Gotham Knights (but more on that soon).  

Instead um... 😶😶😶

Okay, I'm gonna talk about the "bat in the room" aka the thing mostly everyone just buries when it comes to Bruce being a father figure to Cass and that's well the latter having a MAJOR crush on him.

It's something the Kelley Puckett run doesn't focus on thankfully (more going onto boss and later parental). Dylan Horrock's run which followed however um... 

See the key to Horrock's was Cass coming to terms with her teen hormones, sexuality (both her own and seeing others lust after her), and how to properly deal with them.

In the end, she realizes how to deal with two (Kon she just wants to be friends with and Black Wind well-- he kind of dies). 

 Then there's Bruce. Who she feels maybe is jealous of all her suitors (he’s acting more parental at least overbearingly). And it leads to um.. moments like this in #50 which Babs theorizes.

Now it's known by Babs, that Cass does have a crush on Bruce. Something that's brought up also in Gotham Knight at this time period during the whole "Is Bane Bruce's brother subplot".

So this whole period has this um.. sketchy subtextual period.  However, it is also Batman: Gotham Knight that also begins to lay the foundation of Bruce to treat Cass like a daughter.

Likewise, Cass's interactions with Dick/Tim are here in this comic too (which I covered in their evolutionary relationship with Cass) where their bonds became sibling-like.   

 Here for Dick and here for Tim.

Though it's not like Cass just had thoughts for Bruce, as we learn creators in the late '04 to '05 period creators on both Batgirl/Robin thought of the pair as romantic interests (hence why you have A LOT of ship art from that period until '07 when a certain heel turn basically sank it until a little bit or revival in ‘11).

So yeah, Puckett era and most of Horrocks' run? Cass was a Gordon. Literally, she even thinks of Babs not as something more than just a sister in #25, but as a mother.

Likewise, Babs sees the warning signs that something is truly up with Cass throughout the whole Shiva subplot whereas Bruce is more, "She has to confront Shiva and get thru this phase." And Babs is all, "THIS IS GONNA KILL HER!"

ut as we know Cass still goes thru with confronting Shiva, even with Babs' attempts to sway her from doing so.

Regardless, Cass is more Babs' daughter from Puckett to Horrocks.

Where it begins to shift toward fatherly with Bruce and her becoming a Wayne? You can probably begin with "Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive" where four BIG events happen in Cass's life.

David Cain targets both Bruce and Babs. 

Cass learns Bruce is Batman. 

Cain's “motive” for targeting them both (he’s honoring a contract made by Lex Luthor. 

Cain surrenders to confess to the murder of Vesper Fairchild leading to his incarceration.

Why target both? Because David figures both turned their daughter against him. However, it is AFTER this Bruce develops his more um-- bat dickery approach to Cass but also the sketchy stuff. At least for Horrocks. This is where Puckett has Bruce be more parental toward Cass right after this event. 

So it's near the end of Horrock's run that we reach our impasse where it all diverges.  Because at the end of the "War Games" event, Babs was leaving Gotham, taking away her as a mentor/mother role to Cass.

The other being the loss of Stephanie Brown aka Cass's best friend. Two key supporting members of Batgirl Vol. 1 and Horrocks left the book because of it.

Still, he wrote the catalyst which would break Cass/Babs apart in #54. Something that I covered when talking about Cass's Dyslexia disability.

The reasoning is understandable as Cass was neglecting her lessons and well mistakes are made. But this moment is what leads to the two having a fractured relationship.

While later Batgirl writer Andersen Gabrych does lay the seeds to mend that relationship in #67.  Well, he didn't have to time to finish it. Nor did Gail Simone, writer of BoP either. 

Though he did showcase more how much Cass was the mirror to Bruce during this time period. 

Because basically, all this is happening right around...

The period of the end of Batgirl Vol. 1 and the beginning of Cass's "heel" turn. Though we can hate on the turn there is one moment within Robin #148 which has Babs reacting rocked with Cass "dying".

Likewise, we have in BoP when Misfit showed up in her intro arc wanting to be the new Batgirl and Babs snapping at Charlotte when "Cass" is brought up.

The thing is if we're gonna go on and say who truly made Cass fully a Wayne in the conscious mind. It would be Batgirl Vol. 2 #1-6 aka “Redemption Road”.

I get the "why" as it takes Cass FULLY into being a Wayne here. Bruce/Tim are full-on family mode trying to keep Cass afloat while writer Adam Beechen addresses the grand flaws with the main Bat Books and Bat-Family (aka Dick).

I get the "why" this is Beechen trying to cement Cass and giving her the direction the story was going with the character AT THAT  POINT.

That's not to say he disregards Babs' time with Cass though. As in the story, she helps aid Cass in her quest of revenge. Though again, David Cain attempts to take her out (this time more for what she does than for the secondary reason).

But it's clear by stories' end where Cass is going as a character. She's a Wayne.

I get it the "why" as Beechen was undoing the damage he himself accidentally wrought on the character during this time period. This was him correcting the great claws in the infamous period of '06 to '07. 

Aka...

This hot mess:

But as we know this is where Cass's journey with both ended abruptly as minds were made to put Babs' back as Batgirl and for Cass to be ousted from the role.

Except things went another route instead. Let's just say '09 was a rough period because DC was gonna DC.

Though when Cass was brought back. I'd be curious to know what Gail would've done if she was allowed Cass as she originally wanted during her "Brightest Day" run of Birds of Prey.

It's a little "what if" I wonder what would've happened if Grant Morrison and Fabian Nicieza hadn't beaten her to the punch and reinvented the character as Black Bat with a path being the Batman of Hong Kong and further seeding the brother/sister dynamic she had with Tim.

Because sadly that's where the trail ends for Babs/Cass in the Pre-New 52 era. Wayne portion though? “Gates of Gotham” by Scott Snyder and Kyle Higgins continued to build where Batgirl Vol. 2 left off.

This mini though never fully said aloud basically strengthens the bounds of Cass and her brothers. We get so many good moments in this mini with her, Tim, and Dick while also the first meeting she has with Damian.

I think unknowingly this and the New 52 is why mostly Cass is more associated with the Wayne side than Gordons. Because unfortunately right across the horizon was...

We all know how DC "handled" Cass during this era.

I think this is where the clear distinction was fully cast off here. Because DC thought by having Cass around it would negate Babs' return as Batgirl.

HOWEVER!!

It's never said during the Future's End: Batgirl #1  but it sure as heck implied that Babs went on an adopting spree taking in Cass, Steph, and Tiffany.

I think of it and three other stories as the last beacons of Cass being a Gordon.

Because two years after this Cass was reintroduced into the DCU. However with provisions. One of those was crystal clear: no history with Babs.

Why?

If you know the "age-old" DC rule of this era. To acknowledge or establish Babs back as a mentor/mother figure to Cass it would "age" Babs up. Certain folk at DC wanted Babs as younger not older.

So it's not surprising AT ALL that Cass never appeared in Batgirl Vol. 5 until the very end. Now it's not surprising given Babs was doing her own thing with creators trying to find the character's path in the Rebirth era.

Not to mention for Cass? She was branded more toward Wayne side in her new origin as she appeared during Dick Grayson's "first year" as Robin now and was retconned being the second child Bruce encountered and tried to protect.

Which led us to this glorious moment.

However, DC still didn't want to fully dive into this because again it would "age Bruce up". So "half-measures" were taken and Cass was a "backseat Bat-Family member" than the "inner circle" (Bruce, Alfred, Damian, Babs, Dick, and Jason).

That's not to say writers (Snyder and his student James Tynion IV) wanted that reestablishment with either.

Oh, it was literally throughout the Rebirth Tec era. Just in small doses until the very end. When we got the FULL shot.

Along with this additional nugget of Cass going off to be mentored by Babs. Though those looking in Batgirl Vol. 5 would find this instead:

And again continued to find that until the very last issue for some reason. A part of me always wanted to ask any of the writers of Batgirl Vol. 5 but...  just never felt the need given--

-- we got "an answer" aka the third bone tossed on the side of Gordon with Bryan Edward Hill's Tec run aka #983-986 where we got MANY nods to the past with Babs/Cass.

It's just before we got any more with the two the door kind of closed shut on this side tightly.

Oh sure, we got Batgirls and so much. But never once (sadly) does it feel like Cass is a Gordon or Babs is mother/mentor to her. It's more Babs feels like the out-of-touch older member of the trio who's trying to fit in with the youths.

The Wayne side on the other hand? Oh, Bryan Edward Hill's Batman & the Outsider run was ALL about reestablishing that thanks to a concerned mother (among other elements).

And that whole end reached its crux with the series' end, a certain someone getting fired from DC, James Tynion IV's Batman run, and Batman Wayne Family Adventures.

All of this mish-mashed together gave us Cassandra Cain Wayne. But what of the Gordon side? I feel it's important to understand that there is one graphic novel that realized the importance more of Babs had with Cass more than Bruce did. 

 Of course, I speak of Shadow of the Batgirl. Where Cass gets TWO mother figures in the series. Jackie and Babs.

Writer Sarah Kuhn showcases WHY Babs is so critical to Cass's origin more than Bruce is. Thematically, Kuhn realized elements that are just more poetic between the two and we have the closest thing to what Puckett originally established.

Kind why the work is so highly recommended Kuhn took all the stuff that worked, took out what didn't, and added her own spin to the material.

It really showcases why Babs is more a necessity to Cass than Bruce is. I mean sure Bruce has his positivities too as a parental figure. It just takes what NML was giving. The next Batgirl finding Babs and her giving the teen the life she so craved.

However, Babs/Bruce represents the two sides to what Cass craves so in the end, she is both a Gordon and a Wayne.

It's just that during the "New 52" one side got lost because it would "age" Babs up, while for Bruce it was light on the "Wayne" side.

Why you have more Wayne than Gordon. But even with the bias we have still gotten nods to the past.

That's not to say there is a current DC writer who fully understands BOTH sides to the coin. Just that she's never fully gotten the chance to. *cough* Mariko Tamaki *cough*

So there is my final say as to "Is Cassandra Cain a Wayne or a Gordon"?

[justmeinadaze]

Saying Sorry Part 3 (Steve X You)

A/N: Look at that utterly adorable sleeping boy <3 Ok, this took me awhile but alas my brain give you this.

Warning: Smut, a dash of angst, and all the fluff, friends to lovers

Word Count: 3378

Steve’s eyes kept glancing over to your empty chair in class as the teacher droned on about things he could care less about. Since that night after the game, he found himself being more lethargic than usual. It had been a couple of months since he talked to you but he did pass you in the hall a few times and, of course, still saw you during P.E. Every time you caught him looking, you would give him a soft smile before focusing on whatever else you were doing. 

He hated that you were being so kind to him. Part of him wished you would go back to glaring at him with disdain filled eyes so he could continue acting like he didn’t care. 

Steve had started seeing a girl he barely liked hoping it would take his mind off you. Jessie was nice enough and definitely pretty. She had this slightly vapid personality though that drove him up a wall but she was what the popular kids considered “acceptable.” 

This was the second day you hadn’t show up and he was starting to get worried. As the bell rang signaling the end of the period, he bolted to the lunchroom searching for your friend.

“Hey. You’re Y/N friend, right?”

Carrie looked up at him in utter confusion. “Yes? Why? Are you and Tommy missing her since you have no one else around here to make feel bad?”

He flinched at her comment and she caught it, scrunching her nose even further. “I, um, she just hasn’t been in class and I know…I mean…I just want to know if she’s ok, Carrie.”

Your friend sighs, feeling sympathy for his broken tone. “She’s fine, just sick. She caught a cold so she’s been at home. Y/N said she’ll be back after the weekend.”

Steve thanked her before running down the hall, out the door, and towards the parking lot.

###########

“Steve? What-what are you doing here?”

Loud knocking had startled you awake from your cocoon you had made on the couch. You thought it might be Carrie to bring you your homework from class but were totally throw off guard when you saw your old best friend standing at your front door.

“I talked to your friend and she said you were sick. You haven’t been at school…”

“Yeah, no, come in.”, you quickly usher him in as you close the door. “I just got a bit of a bug but I’m okay. My parents are visiting my aunt this weekend so I thought I could just rest here.”

His worried eyes scanned over your face as he reached out to touch your forehead. “See? No fever.”

“Can I keep you company?”

“Oh, Steve. I don’t want to get you sick.”

“Pfft. You underestimate me and my immune system.” He smiles cockily making you giggle. “What are you watching?”, he glances at the screen. 

“An Affair to Remember. We can watch something else—”

“No, no. I think it’s cute you still like these black and white movies.” He grins as he comes around to sit on the sofa and you follow him bundling back up in your blankets. “What’s it about?”

“It’s about two people who meet on a cruise who lead very different lives on land. They fall in love and give themselves 6 months to get their affairs in order and meet again at the Empire State Building.”

His smile grows as he watches you speak. Movies like this were always a weakness for you especially when you were feeling low. When he was younger, he would always sit with you and watch your eyes light up as you watched the cheesy romances or film noir style dramas unfold. 

Twelve-year-old Steve throws on his father’s suit jacket and hat causing you to chuckle at the sight; everything on him two sizes too big.

“What are you doing?!”, you laugh.

“If that plane leaves the ground and you're not with him, you'll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life!” He tugs at your hand, twirling you into his arms as he tilts the hat up so you can see his face. “We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.”

“I said I would never leave you!”

“And you never will…”

Steve had always loved doing little things like that to make you laugh. Truth be told he had only ever put in that kind of effort with you. None of the girls he dated ever got to see that side of him. 

Without thinking, his hand reaches out to brush some of your hair behind your ear. Your eyes didn’t leave the screen as you scooted your body closer to his and curled up into his side.

A pleasant sigh leaves your chest as his cheek rests on top of your head and his arm pulls you closer to his body. He had told you before he couldn’t be what you needed to him to be but right now all you needed was this. 

##############

You woke up a few hours later, placed flat on the couch with the covers tucked up over your chin. 

“Steve?”

“Yeah. Hey, I’m right here.” He came from the kitchen holding a tray in his hands before placing it on the coffee table in front of you. “How are you feeling?”

“A little better. I can breathe through my nose so…”, you laugh as he smiles. “What’s this?”

“Oh.” He sits on the floor and you slide off the couch to sit near him. “I have here grilled cheese and some tomato soup with some juice and a bottle of water. Your mom used to make this for me when I wasn’t feeling so hot. I still make it at home when I’m sick.”

You reach out and gently caress his cheek. “Steve, baby, why are you here?”

He exhales heavily as his hand comes up to take yours. “I don’t know…You weren’t at school and I just kept thinking…what if something happened to you? What if you were hurt or… I needed to know you were alright.”

“Does Jessica Sampson know you’re here? Or Tommy? Carol?”

“To be fair, I don’t think Jessie even realizes I’m not there. She’s so absorbed with her fucking hair; I swear one day it’s going to absorb HER and she’ll turn into that thing in The Addam’s Family.” You couldn’t help but cackle at his comment and he couldn’t enough. “I’m serious! She already talks in that high pitch voice.”

“I’m not here to make things difficult.”, he continued. “I’m so fucking confused, Y/N. To them I’m somebody. To my parents, I’m a nobody. I hate both options. I hate the somebody I am around them but I hate feeling nothing at home. I feel like I can’t win.”

“How do you feel around me?”

Steve flashes you a playful smile. “Before or after freshman year?”

“Surprise me.”

“You’ve always made me feel seen, like I matter. And how did I repay you? Forgetting your birthday and ditching you. Letting people like Tommy hurt you.” He pauses as he looks down at the floor. “Fucking you…the way I did.”

“What do you mean?”, you asked in a delicate tone. 

“You deserve to have someone make love to you. Y/N, we have yet to even do any kind of foreplay. I feel like I’m…using you.”

His eyes flutter shut when he feels your fingers run through his hair. “Steve, I’m not going to push you. I get it. I really do especially with how things are at your house. I just wish I could make you understand how much it hurt me when I lost you. You made me feel seen to and I loved the way you looked at me. I loved…you.”

You crawl into his lap with your back to his chest and he promptly encases you in his arms. 

“You understand how I feel. How long was it we had, honey?”

You smile softly as he quotes from the only movie he can seem to remember the lines to. Turning your forehead against his cheek you respond as Ilsa did in the film.

“I didn’t count the days.”

“Well, I did. Every one of 'em…”

##############

For the rest of the afternoon, you leaned against him watching tv or sleeping. As nighttime rolled around you felt one hundred times better. 

“Ok, I’m going to go take a shower because I imagine I smell like disease.”

“What does that even mean?”, Steve chuckles.

Grinning at him, you start to climb to stairs, pausing to turn your head in his direction. “Are you coming?”

The boy stumbles as he quickly rises, heading for the stairs and follows you to your bathroom. After turning on the hot water, you two disrobe and he holds your hand as you enter the shower. Steve is incredibly stiff at first, unsure of how proceed or if he even should as his fingers tenderly caress your cheek.

“You said we hadn’t done any kind of foreplay and I thought…since you’ve been making me such delicious meals…maybe I can offer you one of my own.”

“Fuck me.”, he stuttered.

Steve fell forward, kissing your lips before trailing them down you neck to your breasts. His mouth wrapped around your nipple, tongue playing with your erect nub as you gently moan. Descending to his knees, you reached behind his head to tangle your fingers through his damp hair as he kissed along your tummy. 

“I-I feel like I should tell you…no one has ever gone down on me before.”

His eyes squinted up at you playfully. “Are you joking?”

“No!”, you giggle. “You remember, the other guys we double dated with at most fingered me and then the one other guy I was with said he didn’t want eat me out because…because he thought it was gross.” You cringe as you say your last sentence and Steve’s forehead leans against your body as he laughs. 

“Are you fucking kidding me? Like this dude had no problem sticking his dick in something he thought was ‘gross’ but couldn’t fucking…oh my god…what an idiot.” The man lifted your leg and placed your foot on the edge of the tub. “I mean look at this beautiful pussy that belongs to this beautiful woman.”

A small moan falls from your lips as he leans his head between your legs and his nose grazes your clit. “Y/N, you smell so fucking good.” Your palms shoot out to balance on his shoulders as his tongue licks a long stripe through your folds. “Jesus… and you taste so fucking sweet, honey.”

“Please…”, you beg. 

He obliges, enveloping your clit in his mouth as he flicked it with his tongue. You had never felt anything like this before as he devoured you feeling overwhelmed by him with just his tongue alone. As you continued to whimper, he hummed in approval, the vibration hitting your core as your eyes rolled back. 

“Y-yes, Steve, please. It feels so…mmm.”

“Cum for me, honey. I want to feel your cum on my lips.” Two of his fingers breached your entrance, thrusting rapidly into you as he pressed his head as deep between your sex as he could, shaking it from side to side as he sucked on your nub. 

Your fingers clung to his hair as your hips grinded against him, stuttering slightly as you mewled his name and came harder than you ever had before. He quickly removed his digits, replacing them with his tongue as he drank you in. Your thighs trembled around him as you gradually came back down. 

“Steve…Steve, please. I can’t…”

As soon as he rose to his feet, you promptly wrapped your arms around his waist and panted into his chest. 

“Are you okay?”, he whispered.

“Yeah. That was…amazing. I’m just… I’m so tired.”

Steve couldn’t help but giggle. “Too much too soon? Come on. Let’s get you clean and into bed. 

###############

You woke up a little after midnight to the darkness of your room, Steve fast asleep beside you as your head rested on his chest. Before you both had crashed, you suggested he take off his jeans to get more comfortable as a friendly gesture but right now when you looked down you couldn’t ignore the massive bulge outlining his boxers. 

The first time he got a boner in front of you he was so embarrassed.

“Steve…Steve…STEVE!”, you whispered trying to gently shake him awake. 

“Mm, what?”

“You, um, are you having a good dream?”

“What?” He looked down, immediately jumping up from your floor and covering his lower half with his backpack. “Shit. Y/N, I’m so…so fucking sorry!”

“Steve, it’s ok! My parents kind of explained how…some mornings... for boys…” He groaned as he blushed. “It’s ok. I’m not offended or anything. Do you want to use my shower to…cool down?”

“Yes, please.”

“Ok and when you come out, I promise I will never mention this again!”

He flashes you another embarrassed but thankful smile as he runs to your bathroom. 

You grin as you look up at his sleeping face, your palm rubbing his stomach over his shirt. He still had some features of the boy you met all those years ago especially as he slept. He seemed so calm as his face relaxed. Right now, he wasn’t thinking about the kids at school or his parents. Steve wasn’t thinking about how he had hurt you or how much he fucking missed you every day. Right now, it was just you and him. Two best friends that found each other amid all the chaos in this word.  

You watched his face as your hand glided under the fabric and gently caressed his skin. He didn’t move as the pads of your fingers grazed over his happy trail to the hair along his chest. Carefully, you lifted yourself to a seated position as you continued to rub him. The cock in his boxers had gradually began to harden and was threatening to poke out of its confinement. 

Steve heavily sighed, turning his head in the other direction as your hand reached into his underwear to pull out his dick. You had obviously felt him inside of you so you knew he was big but seeing him in your tiny hands had you wondering how he fit himself into your body. No wonder he left you sore afterwards; not that you minded. 

As you slowly pumped him with your hand, you heard a tiny moan emit for his lips. Bending over his waist, you ran your tongue along his length from the bottom of his shaft up to his slit, leaving a tiny kiss before you repeated your actions. 

A small whimper left you as a long line of spit fell from your lips and you twisted your palm around him feeling him throb in your hands. A hand rested on your back and your turned to see Steve’s lust filled eyes meeting yours. 

“Does it feel good?”, you whisper.

“Baby, you have no idea.” Focusing back on your task, you wrap your lips around him and steadily bob your head. “F-fuck. Let-let me help you…” You lean out of his way as he lifts his hip to slide off his boxers and removes his shirt, tossing it to the floor. Grabbing your cheeks, he pulls you to him for a sloppy kiss as his tongue invades your mouth.

“Wait, Y/N.”, he pants as you continue to pump him with your hand. “I-I-I don’t want you to think this why—mmm—I came over. I really was worried.”

“I know, Steve. I know.”

“These past two years, I always thought about you. I—”

“Steve, it’s okay. It’s okay. Please… just fuck me. I need to feel you inside of me.”

He scooped you into his arms, placing your back against the mattress. After you tossed your clothes on the floor next to his, Steve’s hand gripped your thighs, encasing himself between your legs. 

“This is how I should have done it the first time, honey. I should have made love to you instead of fucking you.” His palm reached between your bodies, guiding himself into your entrance as your arms fly up to grip his shoulders. “Fuck, baby. You feel so good.”

Steve’s head fell beside yours, switching between kissing your neck and whispering in your ear as he pumped into you with long, deep strokes that had your eyes rolling.

“You should have been allowed to feel every inch of me, slow and hard. I know I can feel every part of you. Jesus, you’re so fucking tight.”

“Mmm, Steve.”

“Fuck, I love the way you moan my name. Say it again, Y/N.”

Your fingers wind in his hair as you wrap your other arm around his neck, whimpering his name as he thrusts into you a bit faster. He tenderly kisses up your jawline, lifting his head as he looks into your half-lidded eyes. 

“I should have told you how…beautiful you are. How I’m…mmm… never going to be that asshole again.” His own eyes close as his forehead falls on yours. “I’m never going to hurt you like that again, honey. I screwed up, I know. No one has ever cared about…mmm…me the way you did. I…I love you, Y/N…so fucking much. God damn. Can I cum inside you?”

You nod as you bring his head back down to the nook between your neck and shoulder. You couldn’t let him see you cry. He told you he loved you and that he would never hurt you again but you knew the truth. It was all a fantasy. Tomorrow he would wake up and go back to his girlfriend with his popular friends. He would say hello to you but that would be it. He couldn’t give up that life… He had promised you up until freshman year he would always be there for you…then he wasn’t…

Holding him tightly to you, your body shook underneath him as you came. A few moments later, his rhythm faltered and he grunted into your neck as he thrust his seed inside of you. 

You wiped your eyes before he could lift his head, delicately kissing your lips before pulling out of you. 

“Did you want to take a shower or?”

“No, Steve, I’m ok.”

He reached over to your nightstand, grabbing a tissue before cleaning between your legs. Steve laid back down beside you and to his surprise, you didn’t curl up on his chest again. 

“Are you alright, Y/N?” When you didn’t answer he sighed. “It’s because I said I love you, isn’t it? I wasn’t lying about that.”

“Hm. You love me but yet you’re with someone else.”

“Y/N, I haven’t even talked to her in three days. I’m not even really into her—”

“Wow. I’m sure she feels special.”

“God damnit, Y/N. I…”, he cuts himself off as he tries to gather his thoughts. “I don’t want to be this guy anymore. I don’t want to be someone I’m not. I don’t… I don’t want to hurt you.” His eyes emphatically meet yours. “I don’t care what I have to do. I’ll tell Tommy and Carol to fuck off. I’ll set every fucking kid in that school straight about you. I’ll go to school on Monday and remain on my knees all day because that’s where I belong. Forever on my knee, Y/N, begging for your forgiveness.”

You can’t help but chuckle making him smile. “Do you understand why it’s hard for me to trust you?”

“Yeah, I do. I’d like to prove it to you. Prove that I can be a better person than King Steve.”

You lean back on your pillows and roll to your side to face him as he does the same; just like you two used to do when he spent the night those many years ago. His palm brushes some of your hair out of your face before gliding down to the small of your back. You bring your body closer to his, resting your hand on his hip. 

“Ok.”

[icedroplove]

Chapter 3

-------x-------

It was already morning, Gray felt well rested and ready to start the day. The mages were at the lobby waiting for Natsu to join them since he hadn’t left the room yet. 

“Do you guys want me to go check if everything’s okay?”

“Please, Lucy.” Erza answered.

As Lucy went upstairs, Wendy sank on the puffy chair she was sitting on and sighed, petting her friend ecxeed who rested on her lap. Erza kept her firm, yet impatient posture. Gray leaned against the column and watched from the corner of his eye as Juvia played with her necklace. She looked so absorbed by it and he noticed how her lips were curved in a slight smile.

Gray looked away and crossed his arms, trying to hide the little blush on his cheeks from his friends. It was not that any of them were looking at him, though. 

Suddenly, they all heard someone yelling. It was Lucy, raging because Natsu had fallen asleep again after changing his clothes. They looked at each other and chuckled (except Erza who looked even more irritated with the delay). Ten minutes later, everyone was set to go.

First thing to do was visit their client, whose house was by the wealthier part of the village. Octavius, a short old man with a taste for vintage clothing, welcomed them into his place with a big smile. He ushered them to sit and served them hot tea. The team was getting impatient with making small talk about how the trip was and if the inn was amiable, but they waited. After a bit, Octavius calmly put his cup down, cleaned his round glasses which got blurry from the smoke and looked at them. 

“I deeply apologize for holding you so long in this conversation. I just wanted to certify myself that you were a qualified group for my request. Even though I’ve perceived that some of you lack proper manners…” He glanced quickly at Natsu, who was on his third teacup. The fire mage gulped it down at once  without even waiting for it to cool down. ”...I’ve considered that this fine team of Fairy Tail mages has the virtues I was pursuing. Now. allow me to explain what is that I need from you mages. ” Octavius acted like he was a character in a period drama story, which made sense considering the aesthetics of his clothes and house.

“I indulged myself for seven years to the work of a novel which I was convinced would become the newest classic on the market. It was a beautiful and completely original story about royalty, duties, forbidden love and a happy ending. I even ventured myself into including more… passion… on some interactions between the main couple. Of course, only because I consider that a younger audience would further appreciate the narrative with the inclusion of such scenes.”

Gray noticed how Lucy, Erza and Juvia looked at each other. Natsu and Wendy, on the other hand, just continued listening without any further thoughts. The increase of the girls' attention on what Octavius was saying confirmed his hypothesis on what those scenes were. 

“What I’ve been meaning to tell is, I sent the final draft to my editor a few months ago and got no response from her. I concluded she hadn’t received it, but a week ago I heard that this unknown author had just published a book with the exact same premise as my draft and it’s a success. I bought the novel, and Upon reading, I’m certain that it's a full copy of my work. However, I don’t have any concrete proof that Ludovic plagiarized me, that’s what I need from you mages.

”It has come to my knowledge that he’ll be attending a party tonight at his place. I can get tickets for all of you.” Octavius eyed the group, his gaze stopped at Wendy. “I wouldn’t advise the little girl’s entrance, though. It is a more adult party.”

Wendy shrugged, but didn’t look much disappointed. 

“Don’t worry, she can stay at the inn. Speaking of which, it was very kind of you to pay for our accommodation, mister. We appreciate the gesture.”

Lucy spoke, easily adapting to Octavius’ weird kind of speech. This seemed to make him happy, since the man got up and kissed Lucy’s hand. 

“I see that my choice of mages for this mission has been the most fortunate.”

Natsu gulped his fourth cup of tea and threw his fist in the air. 

“Okay, I’m all fired up! Let’s kick some ass!” 

Erza elbowed him. Octavius did not show any reaction besides eye Natsu. Apparently, the gentleman wasn't one to be rude. He reached for his pocket and handed Lucy a paper.

“If you may, please write your names here so I can get you on the guest list for tonight.” He wrote on another paper and gave it to Wendy. “This is the address of my publisher. It is possible that she has some information on what happened, she was the only person who read my draft.”

After talking a bit longer, they returned to the inn. Erza ordered Natsu and Gray to wear their best outfits since they didn’t know how fancy that party would be. The boys got ready in thirty minutes, but the girls were still inside the bedroom. Natsu huffed loudly. 

“I’ll go hurry them up.”

“Don’t.”

“But they’re taking too long!”

Gray rolled his eyes, sure that if any of them walked in they’d definitely get Lucy-kicked. After convincing his friend that it wasn’t worth it, they sat in the lounge ready to wait a good while.

-x-

“I’m lucky I brought an evening dress by precaution.” Lucy looked at herself in the mirror, examining her outfit. What heels do I wear? The red ones or black ones?”

Juvia looked away from her open suitcase to give her opinion. The red shoes were pretty, but too fancy for an event that they didn’t know how the other guests would be dressed at. The black ones were more versatile and matched the maroon dress Lucy was wearing. The girls agreed that the black heels were better. 

Wendy came to Juvia, who was still looking at her suitcase. She asked her what happened.

“Juvia didn’t bring any fancy dresses…” The girls turned to her, confused.

“Why didn’t you say anything? You can wear one of mine!” Erza said. 

“Oh...” Juvia felt embarrassed, she still felt weird asking for things like this. Even though now she had friends she could count on, she’d been used to being alone for so long that keeping things to herself was a normal thing. “Thank you, Erza-san.”

The redhead smiled and gave her a navy blue dress. “Go on, try it!”

Juvia wasn’t used to wearing revealing clothing like this in her day-to-day life. She liked it, though. The color looked good on her. She adjusted the thin straps to better support her breasts and took another look in the mirror.

“Juvia-san, you look so pretty!” Wendy said.

Lucy looked at her from head to toe and winked. “Oh my, you’ll end up killing Gray like this.”

Juvia squealed and covered her head with her hands, blushing hard. Erza made her sit on the bed and started working on her makeup. While she rambled about which winged eyeliner would match best her eyes, she let her mind wonder about what Lucy had said. Would Gray like her look?

“And… done!” Erza took a step back to look at her work and gave Juvia a hand mirror. She liked her look. It was sexy, but not too different from her own style. She put on her heels and gathered her purse.

“Okay, everything’s set?”

Suddenly, Natsu opened the door.

“Yo, you’ve been here for an hour! Let’s go!!!” To no one’s surprise, he got Lucy-kicked in the face.

After assuring that Wendy and Carla would be okay at the inn, they all left the inn.

-x-

They were lost. The instructions Octavius gave them weren’t enough to find the venue. After walking in circles for a while, they stopped at the main square as Erza went to ask for directions.

Gray crossed his arms and stole another glance at Juvia. She looked… different. Her normal attire was so chaste that he was awlays caught by surprise when she wore more revealing clothes. Of course he already knew that she was sexy, but having her wear a dress that flattered her body was… different. 

He looked away before his eyes lingered for too long on the dress' neckline pushing up her breasts. Gray didn’t want to stare at them, nor at the slit on her skirt that showed a bit of her toned thighs. Shit. It was becoming hard for him, even harder when she walked to his side as they waited for Erza’s return.

“Is everything okay, Gray-sama?”

He nodded, crossing his arms. Juvia looked at the square, toying with the necklace he gave her the night before. His chest warmed upon noticing that she enjoyed the gift that much. It assured him that he was off to a good start.

However, Gray was unsure what move he should make next. He was nervous to just ask her out. His plan was taking small steps. He wanted to make Juvia happy, but rushing wouldn’t be of any good. After all, romance was still an unknown matter for Gray Fullbuster. 

“I’ve never seen you wearing this dress.” Was everything he managed to say.

“Erza-san lend me. Juvia’s not used to this…” She gestured to her outfit “But it’s not a problem.”

Gray hummed. He saw Erza walking back to them.

“You look good.” 

He smiled lightly at her. Juvia blushed. While they followed Erza to the venue, Gray walked by her side.

[themushbrain]

Important

Please read

Hi everyone, as you all know I am the creator of Mush/Coral. I have been considering redoing my ocs lore and doing a complete rewrite, also since school is back in session it might be a bit time consuming. So I’ll be taking a bit of a Hitaus while doing so. Please remember that my oc isn’t apart of the pressure universe, they are a character that was made purely out of fun. (For a certain time)

My oc’s lore is simple I guess.

Mushroom on =Mush

Mushroom off= Coral

Mushroom on top of Bandage: Coral pretending to be Mush/avoiding eye contact with Eyeinfestation.

It was supposed to be written like they got arrested and falsely accused kinda like Sebastian, however due to the crime I was thinking how would their father do that? Which caused me to wonder further if my oc’s lore could be more accurate to the sentence. Including age. I said they were 19, which now thinking about it, I wanna bump it up to ether 25 or 27.

I’m still going to do a getting their life together however story is going to be different. Instead of being arrested I decided to have them work as a recently hired scientist for NightShade, and discover something they shouldn’t, ending up locked away and told they died during they’re time at the lab due to a “freak accident.”

Yes I’ve have a lot to think upon the lore during my time away from roleplay, and little to no asks.

Long story short they became a lab rat. The DiVine having the mushroom due to a dead prisoner, is still in there since mushroom usually grow from decay.

Coral’s name will be changed since the last name I felt didn’t fit right for some time.

Yes Mush will be changed to.

I’ve been thinking of new designs anyways.

Know I will come back at some point in time, but for now. I’m here to announce this in case if you’re wondering if I don’t respond for a long period of time.

I know about the devs drama, it’s not hard to miss. Honestly not surprised in the slightest. However separating the game from the developers at this point is considered hard since this is a game were talking about. How long has this been going on?

Awhile 💀

That’s not going to ruin my fun of making oc’s though.

Thank you for reading, appreciate it! -The Mush Brain

[basedkikuenjoyer]

If we're just gonna talk trans manga for a bit might as well show a little love to two shorter series that hold a special place in my heart. For being good. Just that, no frills they're just good and have something honest to say beyond the normal "be your true self" narrative. Because who gives a shit about trans folk after the fun part right? A big reason I love Kiku's story in One Piece is being a rare subversion...but even then she's only really like, the next steps after that phase.

Today's example, Kanojo ni Naru hi (lit. "The Day He Became She") goes way further. And it does so by using a light sci-fi touch to great effect. In this world, we handwaved the mechanical part of transitioning by just having it be something that can spontaneously happen to any male. The phenomenon is called "Emergence," it's compared to Clownfish, completely perfect and our protagonist Nao is a rarity for it happening as a teenager. Through that lens, we have a world where it's mostly normalized. Weirdly enough, we do also seem to have like, what we think of as "trans" in modern day alongside that. One of our recurring characters you could call an Otokonoko, they do mention "sex change" procedures...Emergence is a layer on top of our world. Which makes this straddle the line between part tale of someone all this comes easier to but also the crux of sci-fi, the world we're headed towards.

And this is a good example of how the sci-fi element works. Emergence still takes a toll on the body so our heroine here like, lags a few years behind as a result of transitioning. She's also a late bloomer as a high schooler. She wasn't asleep she was in a legit cocoon-type thing, so the bigotry is all bug-themed which is a pretty clever inversion of normal butterfly motifs. I always lose it at the friend who calls Nao "Mothra" as a lark. It's a lighter touch than it sounds, nice stand-in for going away for a while or having a rocky, reclusive period. But that was after the actual Emergence; sorta like Senpai is an Otokonoko the author had a one-volume idea that expanded to four. We start with it spontaneously happening and a high school drama with her childhood friend Miyoshi.

But this works so well and really shows the brilliance in the rear view. When you have what the story becomes...it really shows how Nao was originally going through a distinct phase. One a lot of trans women, especially teens today, struggle with. Your ability to look the part isn't everything. And it can cause its own category of troubles when that outstrips your ability to cope with the changes. A theme that continues throughout the series, but it's important here Nao has a chance to go back and you're still living around the environment you grew up in. People are willing to give you a lot of grace and positive reinforcement. Senpai wa Otokonoko sorta tells the opposite story, how it isn't a bad thing to let someone experiment a little. Past that point of no return though? That's where the real game begins.

That's Nao with her Dad. I love this storyline. Well before Emergence, Nao's mother abandoned the family for another lover. This caused him to have a lot of issues with women, and as a high school boy he was pretty shitty about serially dating girls and dumping them the second it got serious. Something that bites her in the ass a few ways as her and Miyoshi navigate being a college couple for most of the series. A big thing for her is that she looks like her mom now. For the record, Dad's just a workaholic that didn't even notice. His response was that Nao always had the same face either way and a totally different everything else.

But this is the magic. How everyone gets caught up in stupid misunderstandings and it's never something grand and dramatic. That's a story that deserves to be told, it already resonated with me a lot as a college student navigating my first relationship with a guy ten years ago. It does so much more now. Like...it's not hard to get why a newly out trans girl might hang around with a male-dominated hobby group she was already a part of for a bit. But this is a series that goes far enough to show you that type of pull coming up way later. How some little spark can trigger an old side of you, or even just...how hard it can be to rectify old traumas as a normal part of growing up when you feel like a completely different person than the one who experienced it.

Or maybe realizing there's more to this than you anticipated. When "Emergence" handwaves bigotry like acting as if HRT does nothing...that would have been useful. As someone who's always been at least kinda athletically inclined, who do you talk to about the sobering reality you got more than you bargained for there? No one wants to accept they're struggling with physical exertion that would have been nothing two years ago. Even the most open-minded girls don't want to hear about getting weaker from you and most guys just plain will not get how you didn't logically sit down and expect all of that from the jump. And you yourself don't even know if you're just being a defiant girl or a disappointed former guy about it.

I wouldn't expect someone fresh out of the closet to get all that subtext beneath a good romance manga, but Kanojo ni Naru hi hits that note in a way I have yet to find anything else that even comes close. What makes it work is that Nao and her sweetie Myoshi are cool people. Like here with a future in-law trying to expose Nao for being a bad wife. She filets a tuna like it's nothing and the house is spotless. It's very much a celebration on how this bizarre concoction of circumstances can create something beautiful.

Your only option for this one is fan translations, Lord knows I'd love an anime adaptation but that ain't happening. There is a sequel series, Kanojo ni Naru hi Another, that focuses on a younger emergee who is more resistant to the change. I can't relate fully because despite transitioning in the same time frame that only happened because I was well aware and accepted it about myself from an early age. If I lived in today's world without an abusive mom I'd be one of those cases that was well past socially transitioning pre-adolescence. But getting to know some teens today I feel like Nao is great representation for the type of trans girl who figures things out as a teen and maybe has to deal more with pressure to move forward outstripping the speed they personally come to terms with that. Especially if like, social transition comes surprisingly easy for you.

Watching one of the best case scenario teens I knew still hit that inflection point and "cocoon" stage on the cusp of adulthood was a real wake-up call to me that even in the best of circumstances this can be a weird journey with very little guidance. It's not wrong to take the easier path of showing someone dealing with baby steps or discrimination, but man did it make this series stand out for traveling the road not taken. And it makes Nao & Miyoshi's romance honestly just one of the best couples in any manga I've read.

[cuttoncandyhair]

thoughts on some (canon) HoN couples

Zoey and Stark: I never really understood what their connection was supposed to be. She thought he was hot and he for some reason decided to be eternally loyal to her for... what reason again? So I guess they will be together forever. Should they be? Probably not. They fight an awful lot. I consider them the kind of couple that'll come to resent each other but won't break up. Fun! Aphrodite and Darius: I think they'll last. I just don't like them together. Their relationship is almost too perfect. It's like the authors brain stormed about what kind of relationship they wanted to give to Aphrodite, picked an idea, but never developed it further. They also didn't really give Darius much of a personality. He is a perfect warrior and a perfect lover for Aphrodite. Period. Considering how big of a role Aphrodite has in these books, her man is considerably underdeveloped as a character. They are just not interesting to me. Stevie Rae and Rephaim: Love them. Love them to death. Definitly an otp of my childhood. Will they last? I don't know, and I hate that. A lot of their relationship is based on novelty, I feel. They have very strong feelings for each other, but how will they work 20 or more years down the line? What do they have when the initial passion mellows out a bit? What do they have in common? What will they talk about? I will never forgive the Casts for not developing them further. Their relationship was such a big part of the middle of the story and then they were practically abandoned for the sake of making room for more Zoey-drama. Too bad. I really wanted to see at least glimpses of their relationship getting long-term-development. Damien and Jack: Cute, but once again drastically underdeveloped. Also, what's with all the gay stereotypes? I could write up a whole wall of text about those, but whatever. They got significantly more development in the Other World series. One of the few, and I really mean FEW, good things about it. They got a little more of an edge and personality and I must say, it suits them. I even started to care about them. Shaunee and Erik: In all honesty, what the fuck? That felt so forced! Why are the Casts so afraid of letting their characters be single pringles? I appreciated them trying to redeem Erik, but that sure as hell wasn't it, fam. In the Other World series they didn't seem like they would last either. I think they are gonna break up on amicable terms soon. All in all, I couldn't care less about them. Shaylin and Nicole: Umm... Where did they come from, again? I never saw that coming? They too just felt forced to me. Also, that thing they did in the sequel? What in the everlasting fuck? Was that supposed to be funny? I found it terrifying. Did anyone else find that funny? Maybe I just didn't get it? Frankly, I found it offensive, but I'm not a lesbian so what do I know... Kalona and Nyx: I'm happy for them. I don't get it, but good for them. As in, good for Kalona. He's got the love of his life back. How did Nyx forgive him again, though? Like, she knows of everything he did. Damn, she probably welcomed the people he abused and killed in her realm and had to calm their souls and reincarnated them. I take her for an empath, so she probably felt their pain with them. I can somewhat understand she loves the good side of Kalona, but how she forgave him for all he's done is beyond me. I wish her reacceptance of him would say something about her as an immortal entity and how she preceives the death and pain of mortals, but there is no way in hell the Casts would have thought that far. In the end Kalona definitly changed but his sacrifice doesn't make up for everything he's done by a long shot. What a mess! Travis and Lenobia: Darling! So cute! The only thing that hurts me is that he will die before her again. It must be so hard for Lenobia to think about losing him again. But all in all I think they were fun to read about.

[kopw]

obviously if you stop liking something you're not obligated to engage with it further period. but as someone who's been watching bte for around a year now (ever since i properly got back into wrestling as a hobby last april) i just can't help but tune in every monday! even if i know the episodes will leave me unsatisfied and mildly disappointed

i think balancing a behind the scenes vlog series with, i guess you could call it another weekly television show, where you expand upon the big plot line surrounding your friend group, while also giving opportunities to people who may not get as much screen time or attention on your main programming (even more so now with dark and elevation ceasing)... it's a tricky thing for sure. but not impossible! it's a format that's worked for years, ever since they figured out that there was a market for this sort of storytelling in wrestling. it's unique, and fun, and emotional, and there is obviously a place for these external details to slot into, gaps that in-ring storytelling fails to fill

so why am i suddenly unhappy? did something drastically change?

the simple answer is no. you have the drama, you have the travel montage, you have the ryan nemeth segment that everyone and their mother skips—but, wait. let's go back to that first item

something about the "kayfabe" portions has been bugging me recently and i couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was until today

they are deeply unserious

not that bte has ever been a prestige drama, nor is that what I'm looking for when i click play on an episode. but there's this... emotional distance? between the story and the elite themselves that feels disingenuous

i know that partially this is because the people involved are, above all, looking to have fun. i can't remember if it was swerve's podcast or the sessions, but in one of the recent interviews kenny did, he talks about how he's not looking for that grand story anymore, which i think is respectable. this mentality probably extends to the bucks as well, based on how similar their views are to kenny's when it comes to the subject of wrestling philosophy and storytelling

say what you want about cody and his pretentiousness when it came to his character on bte (which isn't even inherently a bad thing when you're an actor), but my brain keeps rewinding to the monologue he did at the end of episode 106. you know the one. ah, yes. his recital of hurt by nine inch nails. that episode was special, and it is special, because it was genuine and immersive, much like the larger narrative it was a part of at the time

not every story needs the same weight. they don't all need to pull on the same heartstrings. but i think what they all need is care. and there's almost this... flippancy, nowadays, that stands like a wall between me and my investment in the story that is being told to me

but maybe i'm wrong. i'm often wrong about many things. i'm not saying bte became soulless and unenjoyable beyond saving. it's just a bit bland at the moment to me personally

nick is still hot though

[gorbalsvampire]

For the OC ask thingy!

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

(Besides VAMPIRES! I mean 😆)

Fucking hell... ask me the hard ones, Marshie...

OK. Sorcha's original concept was very much Of The Social Media Age. She's an Instagram vampire, an underground party planner, a drug chemist, she's had at least one Vice article written about her. That aspect got played down as she became more #harrowcore over time - actually, that's another thing, the NA necromancy novels that have come out in the last few years have definitely pulled me in a different direction. Sorcha would not be as she is now without Ninth House, Harrow the Ninth, The Library of the Dead... I can drop literary influences for her because she's listened them all as audiobooks and that's part of her goth gril deal.

Alistair's history is inextricable from Glasgow's, in the twentieth century. He's the character I have a full CV worked out for, the spots where he intrudes into and overwrites real historical figures are clear, the incidents which led to his ghouling, jailing and Embrace are all there, he clawed his way out of the Gorbals and their glow up is his as well.

Luciana has an aesthetic influence. Venice is a wonderful city in which to be an old vampire - elegant and decaying, timeless and under siege by modernity, tourist trap yet people still live and work and study there. I will die mad that V:tM closed it off so effectively by saying GIOVANNI TURF and putting the majority of the player base off the place entirely, but it also plays directly into my hands so I'm not going to complain about it too much. But anyway: the rot and romance and fragility and the kind of... authenticity, but also the reality that it is a living city, that the airport is just over there and the cruise ships make the foundations shake, and real death is not pretty and romantic, it's rank and arbitrary and carnal? That's where Luci comes from.

Santino is about the music. Of course he is. He is inextricable from that Eighties-Nineties period of music culture where print journalism was a thing, indie wasn't a genre, and specifically the turning point where goth was deemed Unfashionable and grunge was everywhere. The moment it all crystallised for me was writing the fake Quietus snipped about Driftback: how if they'd come along ten years earlier they'd have been goth rock superstars, ten years later and they'd have been up there with your female-fronted-gothic-metal boom. That sense of being out of time is core to Santino. It comes to all vampires eventually, and he was dealing with it before he was even Embraced.

Penny is a Bond girl gone bad. There's no other way of putting it. She was always rooted in that Cold War spy-versus-spy drama, even though her origins have shifted further back to Bletchley Park and Edwardian England. Her exaggerated Englishness is a bit she can't put down now that the Sabbat has burned out so much of her selfhood, too: she's an alien, she's a legal alien, she's a Camarilla English girl in Sabbat Arizona.

Riley was deliberately engineered around a sort of Tipping the Velvet point: Victorian queerness and gender and sexology vaguely simmering away in the backstory. I'd been reading A Bitter Remedy and Daughters of Night earlier in the year so I think "historical queerness and class barriers" were definitely in the mix.

[empress-of-snark]

I understand not wanting to do a pregnancy storyline. I wasnt really a fan of it in the show, it just seemed like a way to add more drama to the Ross/Rachel saga.

But I do think it'd be interesting to do a pregnancy scare story. It would show different sides to the characters and make them think differently about what they really want.

If seems like something that would most likely happen to Eddie and Chrissy. Because they're way more irresponsible than Nancy and Jonathan. Lmao. 😂

I agree that the whole Emma storyline is a bit weird and probably just an excuse to complicate their relationship further. I enjoy parts of it, but on the whole I’ve always thought the first five or so seasons are the best, anyway.

A pregnancy scare could definitely be an interesting plot for one of the couples, though! Eddie and Chrissy do seem like the obvious choice—I think Nancy is probably way more careful about birth control than Chrissy is lol. Maybe it could even tie in to the possible issue of Eddie being unwilling to grow up? His cutting his hair to be more “mature” is his way of telling her that he’s accepting the responsibility of having a child.

She says “thank you so much, sweetie, but I got my period literally ten minutes ago” and he’s like “oh great, so I just sacrificed my hair for nothing?” 😂

[jodilin65]

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 When I got up today I thought, boy it’s dark in here. Then as soon as I turned off the sound machine I could hear the rain. Yes, we actually got some real rain. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but this is no five-minute drizzle. The only thing that sucks about it is that it’s so chilly in here. Gonna need the heat tonight for sure.

I wish we could go to Hawaii or Florida and not return till April (though we will be in Florida, Mexico, Jamaica and possibly a couple of other countries for about a week)! Because some people have asked… yes, this is a seasonal climate. Only it doesn’t get below the 20s or snow. Still, it gets plenty cold enough. The coldest night I remember in the 8 years I’ve lived here was 23° and the hottest day was 114°.

Anyway, I felt really rundown yesterday. I had to push myself to go out on the bike, and biking is the one form of exercise I never get sick of. I’ll be running indoors tonight. I felt rundown in the kind of way one does when they’re sick, only I didn’t feel sick. I wrote it off as not sleeping well, but I slept better this time around, so hopefully I won’t feel sluggish later on. Could be PMS, though I don’t feel very PMSy. I’m guessing my period will be late again as menopause sets further in. I hope that’s what it is, anyway.

I dreamed we moved to Europe, though I don’t know where in Europe. Nane might have been in the dream, too. Funny I should dream of her because I “sensed” her last night. Like she was considering contacting me or something. If she does, the smart thing to do would be to ignore her. The dumb thing to do would be to reply. Well, I would probably do the dumb thing because sometimes I just do dumb things. Warum würde das ändern?

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2015 No problem yesterday and today while I’ve been awake, but my heart raced me awake for the second time in three days. It took me a while to fall back asleep. I know it’s just anxiety due to the dosage increase, and it’s not scary like it was at first, but it is annoying. Either way, I’ve got this! This is still better than suffering while I’m awake. It’s a pain in the ass, but it stops after a few minutes. Before I would suffer for hours at a time either with my heart racing, beating hard, or the emotional twisters that having a good thyroid day can put you through on top of the medication you take. I have stood up to God (if there is one) and let Him know that I’m not going to take any more medical drama. I refuse to suffer and I’m not about to sit back and have Him allow me to do so either. Once I took that step, I began to feel better. I’m not perfect any more than anyone else is, but I certainly can’t complain compared to what I see many others go through, along with what I went through in the past.

I am much more concerned right now for my sister and Aly. My sister needs her other knee replaced, and Aly’s looking at once again dealing with radiation and chemo due to leukemia. As if they haven’t had enough to deal with between breast cancer, lung issues, and tons of other shit! To make it even scarier, so many doctors out there don’t have a clue as to what they’re doing. My first endo told me it would take six months to regulate my dose. Well, it’s been a year and a half and I’m still waiting. The more I learn from Doc O, the more info I realize Doc D withheld from me that could’ve helped me a lot.

I’m a bit surprised I haven’t had any negative dreams pertaining to my sister or Aly. Hopefully, that just means they’ll be okay in the end. They may have a rough road ahead, but they’re tough enough to pull through.

I did dream that I was at a dinner party with Lori, Lisa and June and gave them a piece of my mind.

Then we were living in some huge place somewhere that seemed more like a building than a house because the place seemed to have five or more bathrooms. I went into one of the smaller bathrooms to pour a bottle of water into the sink and noticed that the countertop was not only wet but also had a traditional toilet paper holder. I made a mental note to replace it with a handy bar holder.

Then I was in the living room where the walls were painted a teal color. Tom had pulled a tall piece of furniture about a foot from the wall (a hutch or a bookcase?) and behind it was a wallpaper pattern of some kind. I made another mental note to keep a tall piece of furniture in that area to hide it.

Then I was chasing a cat around the place (Simone?) that was trying to eat scraps of paper that had fallen to the floor.

In another dream, I was by a large pool. Several people surrounded it, but only these strange-looking penguins were jumping in and out of the pool. Even though it was a warm day and I wished I could jump in the pool too, I knew there was something in the water that was bad for people and that’s why no one was using the pool.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 The older I get, the less often I get depressed. Yet last night I felt a little anxious as well as depressed. I’m on a new dosage and I don’t know how it’s going to affect me a few weeks from now, I have an ageless neighbor that likes to be noisy at times, and sometimes I miss being so far away from my closest friends and family. Not gonna lie, though. If we won the lottery today then we would be making plans to move further away (to Hawaii) the next day.

I thought about last year’s trauma and I realized that as horrible as the ordeal was, there was some good in it. For many years I have worried about how we would get by and what will become of us when we get old. However, when you are worried about how a medication may affect you in the present, it has a way of diverting your mind from what may happen in the future. That was definitely one of my biggest problems for a long time… I spent so much of it worrying about the future and all kinds of possible scenarios that may never happen.

My heart seemed to beat a little hard last night, but it may simply have been that my body was digesting all that chicken I had. If I didn’t know any better I’d swear Foster Farms put beta-blockers in their chicken! When I had some toward the beginning of my day, I felt very tired afterward and was suddenly freezing. Hypothyroidism can make you feel cold, but my numbers aren’t high enough to really get me that cold, I wouldn’t think. Finally, I perked up and warmed up. Toward the end of my day, I had some more chicken and the same thing happened. I even fell asleep early.

I went to bed worrying… Will Bob’s hammer wake me up? Will a loud vehicle wake me up? Will my heart race me awake? Will I have any nightmares? However, I ended up sleeping quite well and got up at noon for the third day in a row.

I made a few rounds around the circle on the bike just after 7 PM last night and the moon looked pretty cool from what I could see of it. It would probably have looked a lot cooler back out in the country. Part of me misses country living, minus Jesse, his mutts, the well, and a few other things. I never expected this retirement community to be quiet all the time, but I also never expected to be listening to so much traffic and landscaping this often either, along with motorcycles and power tools. It’s just ridiculous at times. At least there are no barking dogs or screaming kids, but I do hear car stereos at times. Most of those are coming from outside of the park, though. Today I heard about 10 seconds of hammering, but I couldn’t say if it was from next door or not. It has otherwise actually been a very pleasant day.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2015 Made it through my first day on 88’s without any more than just a touch of anxiety. Couldn’t have been from the meds, though, since the new dose isn’t in my system yet. Two weeks to two months is the critical zone I need to get through. My heart did race me awake once, though, because I overheated. I got up, kicked the fan on, and fell back asleep a little while longer with no problem.

This hot day is full of car stereos and motorcycles, but only the motorcycles have come close to the house. Really REALLY wish the residents would start complaining about them, but I know they won’t with the way noise is so accepted and even encouraged in the West. Like I said, I dread the day they drop the mutt rules. What will be the point of a retirement community then? I mean I don’t care how old you are if you can’t shut up. Noise is noise and I’m not sure it matters if it comes from a stereo or a child’s mouth any more than a motorcycle or a dog’s mouth. At least Bob’s been quiet for several days now, and yes, I would rather the motorcycles than him. The motorcycles come and then they go. But when Bob starts up one of his projects, I don’t know how long I’m going to have to listen to it.

Love the weather we’ve been having. I prefer highs in the 90s because then it’s not so hot that the AC is always running, but not cool enough to let it get too chilly in the mornings.

I love routine and I love the things I usually do on a daily basis. But sometimes I just like to relax and do things that don’t require much thinking. Like coloring. Ever since I’ve gotten into adult coloring books I’ve been reading less and less. I even canceled my book deal subscription for now. I colored for hours last night and re-sorted all my pens and pencils. Love this Facebook page for adult coloring addicts, and even printed some of their free coloring pages and submitted some of my own work. They’re going to be having some kind of giveaway, but with nearly 25K “likers,” I don’t stand much of a chance. I miss the days when winning was easier!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2015 Aly noticed my schedule’s been flipping faster this last week. I love an observant person who cares enough to notice even the little things. But yeah, it’s been jumping fast. Tom thinks I’m just anxious. Well, now that I’ve got more levothyroxine in my body than ever before since I began 88 mcg today, I’d say that yes, I’m a little anxious. Still hoping for the best, though.

Aly should get the necklace I sent her on Monday, while I’ll have to contact the seller about my set of glow-in-the-dark nail polishes since I was supposed to receive them on the 22nd and never did. I also stupidly gave the mailman a DHL number, not OnTrac.

What I don’t get is why we have to see our doctors in person with the way technology is today. My endo’s a lovely person, but why can’t we “meet” online or via phone? Wouldn’t that save both the patient and the doctor a lot of time? I can see meeting in person at least once a year, but every 3 months?

So far today I’ve heard a loud car stereo and motorcycles tearing in and out of here while I was in the shower with water beating on my head, that’s how ghastly loud the fucking things are. It’s like I can’t escape Jesse. Bob makes the kind of racket he made, and now Jesse’s motorcycles are roaring in and out of this place.

“They can’t stop people’s friends and family from visiting,” Tom said.

Why can’t they stop them from doing so on motorcycles? It’s their park. sighs If only we could pick this house up and move it to a less active section of the park!

Speaking of the park, it’s asking for clothes to be donated, so since I’m 100% sure I’ll never lose weight, it’s time to weed out the clothes I’m too big for.

Now here’s something weird. I received a call from an Auburn number in which a guy left a VM saying, “Jodi, remove me from your phone list. Al.”

Curious as to what the hell he was talking about, I called the number back and he said someone was using our numbers to enter sweepstakes and stuff like that. I told him I was sorry they were doing this to him, but it wasn’t me.

Tom said it was our old number, but I don’t recognize it as our old cell number or the landline in the trailer from when we lived in Auburn. What I don’t get is why would they use BOTH his number and my current one???

No negative dreams last night. Just weird ones. In one dream Tom went down to Arizona on a business trip and happened to stay in our Maricopa house while he was there. I anxiously asked him what it was like nowadays upon his return and he said he didn’t notice.

I said, “They must’ve planted more trees then.”

Then I dreamed Simone was with us again and this time I magically had no breathing problems, couldn’t smell her shit, and she was oh so perfectly behaved.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2015 Today is the last day of the 75s. Tomorrow my dose will be upped to 88 mcgs and yes, I am nervous about it. Trying to think positively and hope for the best, though. The thing is my body isn’t even going to know it for a week or two. This medication takes time to build up in the body.

I have enjoyed three days of peace and quiet, but that’s probably mostly due to the heat rather than the kindness of people's hearts. All I heard was the trash truck, and they were landscaping down the street at one of the houses.

It is very weird yet cool to now be able to read and comment on some Facebook posts in Dutch. I still know more German, though. I don't have any plans or desires right now to whip my Dutch and German up to serious fluency. Knowing a little more than enough to get by is sufficient enough for me. I do want to review some of my RLs, though. Consistency matters.

Tom has been doing some research on dieting since he wants to lose weight. Studies suggest it's best to eat the number of calories it would take to maintain your ideal weight, saying you would automatically lose weight if you did that consistently and then hover at your ideal weight. They say this is better than traditional dieting where you drastically cut your calories. To me, this makes no sense. I would think that each day you took in more than you put out, you would either gain weight or stay the same.

He can do what he wants, but I know I’m always going to be big and I can live with it as long as I don’t get any bigger. I’m learning, however, that it’s not all about my thyroid but also about age and genetics. I mean look at how many older people struggle to lose weight yet their thyroids work fine. The older body was just meant to have extra meat on it, even with a healthy diet and sufficient exercise. I don’t think there’s much we can do about that, but we can definitely prevent additional weight gain once we settle into whatever our middle-age weight is going to be. I have been approximately the same weight for about six years now.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015 Updated my passport. I was smart to have penciled in my old address so I could erase it and pencil in my current one. Why didn’t they stamp the Bahamas in when we were there? Puerto Rico was part of the US, and we didn’t quite make it to the Grand Turks, but it’s kind of strange that they didn’t stamp in the Bahamas. I thought it would be cool to have a “book” of all the countries I end up going to.

I dreamed we lived in Hawaii. Best. Dream. Ever. Still no negative dreams that might lead me to think I might be in for trouble on the new dose, but soon I will find out.

Had the runs for the second time this week, though I’m not sure why.

The air quality has been horrible here. I had a little congestion yesterday. We’ve been averaging 10° higher than normal for this time of year, but I’m certainly not complaining. It gets chilly in here in the mornings, and then the AC comes on in the afternoons.

There’s a really nice older guy who delivers our mail, and I went out to see if the nail polish that was supposed to get here two days ago had arrived, and it hasn’t. I told him OnTrac was supposed to deliver it to our regular carrier and he asked if I had the tracking number. So he backed up his truck, and I ran in to jot down the number for him. He said he would look into it but that he’s not going to be here for the rest of the week.

Next door is out now and hopefully won’t return before it's too hot for the GOM (grumpy old man) to go into I-don’t-give-a-shit mode (with his hammer) and make me edit the letter I already drafted up for Joy in hopes of jinxing him into silence.

I saw Jim pick Bob up yesterday for the second time and they took off somewhere for a few hours. Like I said, I love it when he’s out. I don’t care about his wife because she’s never noisy, but Bob can spend all the time he wants away from home.

I rejoined Tumblr for the millionth time because they have a “chat” feature that allows you to write stories in script form. I was going to try that just for something different, but it simply won’t work. There’s no way to capture unspoken thoughts and actions in the way that you can in story format.

Later…

I like to document as much as I can in my journals, not just about my life and experiences, but those I know as well. This is definitely not appropriate for public viewing.

I am always thinking of O lately. What is it with me and these doctor crushes? It used to be cops and now it’s doctors. What’re next, farmers? Real estate agents? Teachers? LOL crushes may be fun no matter who we love and are devoted to, but they can be frustrating at times. You wish you could see these people more often, but at the same time, you certainly don’t want anything to come of it. Besides, due to both age and having Hashimoto’s my libido is just about shot to hell. The bright side of that… you don’t miss what you don’t crave. Still, I can recognize something attractive when I see it and there’s just something about that endo of mine.

Let me guess… now that I have an established crush on O, she will retire, move, or something. All the hotties have a way of disappearing from my life rather quickly. Jane, the waitress moves. Liz, the cashier quits. Randy changed routes. My old doctors turn out to be less than competent. So what will happen to O? I’m guessing early retirement, though it’s possible she may move. Then I can send her a friend invite on Facebook that she won’t accept, LOL.

I’m just one of the few who can admit that no human being is attracted only to their soulmate. We are attracted to people regularly throughout our entire lives. It’s just human nature. Only difference is that with some it’s the opposite sex, some it’s the same sex, and with others, it’s both. In different frequencies as well, no doubt.

With me, it’s women with an occasional guy sprinkled in the mix. My last male crush (besides a few guys online) was one of the mailmen we had up in Oregon. There was just something about tall, wiry Randy and his alert blue eyes. I don’t have a “type” with men, though I have always liked both men and women who were older. O is a bit out of my type, just like my old PCP was because I rarely like blondes. O isn’t blonde, but she’s kind of smallish like I am. She’s Tom’s age and has light golden brown eyes with shoulder-length graying hair that is mostly dark brown. My usual type is tall with dark hair and dark brown eyes. Not big on blacks, but some Italians, Hispanics, Indians and Asians can be very beautiful.

Anyway, I got a couple of crystal heart necklaces that are identical and I have mailed one to Aly in Nebraska. She said she’d let me know when she gets it. We hang out daily on Twitter.

I am still connected with Mitch, Adonis, Christine and Eileen, though I don’t hear much from Eileen these days.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 Leave it to me to get another story idea before I have finished editing Rainstorm.

Our insurance paid more for my last dentist visit than we thought they would. We thought they only paid for one of the two yearly exams, but nope. They apparently cover both. All we had to pay was the $20 the special fluoride toothpaste costs.

No bad vibes about increasing my dose, and no nightmares. Just a weird dream where somebody posted on Facebook, “Brenda drove off a bridge,” and I knew they were referring to the Brenda I dated for nearly a year in the early '90s.

As for the grumpy old man next door, Tom and I have decided that yes, if his racket escalates, we will contact the office. We took Jesse’s shit for half a decade because we had no choice, but we’re not about to take it here. I think – and seriously hope – that it won’t come to that. I really don’t want any trouble with anyone anywhere. I just want people to keep their projects, especially the unnecessary ones, for their ears only. Lately, he seems to get noisy every three days or so. If it gets to be every day or maybe even every other day, and he’s doing it off-hours more frequently, that’s what I’ll complain. I don’t want to complain unless it’s absolutely necessary. Being annoyed is one thing, but being driven crazy is another.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2015 Just sitting here realizing I’ve come to have a little thing for Doc O… and a list of potential silly story ideas. What is it with me and docs lately anyway? That’s 4 out of the 10 or so docs and therapists I’ve seen in this state. I don’t know that I could count my dentist, though. It’s like she’s attractive, but she’s not. I think her sweet personality is more what I’m attracted to, and not her. I sort of liked Dr. D even though I didn’t, I definitely liked Dr. C, and now there’s just something about Dr. O. Like I said, there was just something about her demeanor, though she’s still friendlier than Dr. A.

After the doctor’s yesterday, we grabbed a burger and fries at Carl’s Jr., then went to Walmart to pick up my new prescription. I’m not starting this dose until the weekend.

I got a heart-shaped necklace that changes colors depending on how the light hits it and a new pair of pink slippers.

Tom did some trimming and blowing when we got home, and I wish to hell that others doing the same exact thing wouldn’t be so damn annoying to me. When he does it, it’s simply a sound in the background. When others do it, it’s a huge annoyance. I guess that when he’s making the racket, I know what’s going on and I know how long it’s going to last. But now that Bob has taken to hammering before 8 AM, I wonder how much more that’s going to go on before I am forced to go to the office to stop it.

Seriously, how many more decades of rude, inconsiderate neighbors can I possibly take before I snap? Totally, totally snap. Although it was only for about a minute, it was very loud and it happened at 7:45 AM. You’re not supposed to make noise before 8am. What I wonder, though, is whether or not it was in regard to my music. I did have it kind of loudish while I was showering, but since I could hear him hammering over the music barely 3 yards away from my window, my guess is no. It is possible that even an older guy who’s hard of hearing could have heard it, but I don’t think so. I would have probably heard it if I was standing outside the window.

Why do I feel like I am being spited for simply taking Virginia’s suggestion? She asked if I heard them. Well, I told Bob that yes, I could. I am coming to learn just what a mean guy this really is. Just totally rude and inconsiderate. He was never as friendly as Jim and a few others I’ve met around here, but I didn’t realize he had a blatant lack of respect and compassion for those around him. He is clearly one of those who is going to do what he’s going to do regardless of how it affects others.

I am so fucking sick of this shit following me every single fucking place I go. Yes, I have had much worse to deal with neighbor-wise, but nobody should be hammering outside your window that early in the morning.

Because I expect it to escalate, I have already drafted an email, which I will send to Joy if he keeps pushing me like this. I would rather an email that I can edit and that would be harder to deny than a face-to-face since there’d be a record of it. Yes, I know it is taking a risk should they be good friends with Joy or have connections in law enforcement like the freeloaders did, but sometimes we have to do what we feel is best. Life is about taking chances, isn’t it? I really hope it doesn’t come down to that, but just what did he absolutely have to hammer with such intense force at 7:45 in the morning? Tom said the walkway looks fine. I agree, from what I saw going to get the mail. There’s nothing wrong with it, so whatever he’s doing over there is not a necessary repair. This is an incredible display of rudeness and it has stamped out any last thoughts of trying to make peace with them. I’m sorry he reacted so poorly to my honesty and that he's such a sore loser, but I’m not sorry that I spoke my mind.

There is nothing to suggest he has dementia, Alzheimer’s or anything like that, which can cause a person to turn on you. I think he’s just plain mean and inconsiderate.

His upcoming actions will determine whether or not I contact Joy, depending on both the frequency and the time of day. It’s totally up to him at this point. I just wonder how I’m going to react when he finally starts waking me up. This isn’t 16 young people that could beat my ass in a heartbeat. This is 1 old man.

All I know is that I don’t care anymore how much longer they’ve been here than us. And that’s fine that he wants to do things and keep active, but it shouldn’t be at my expense. I want to do things too, but other than when we’re landscaping we don’t make anybody else listen to us and I really expect the same consideration and respect in return.

Just heard a few more bashes against something, this time softer and probably coming from the garage. It definitely wasn’t because of anything I was doing, because I don’t have any music on at all. It’s just his rude, “I’m going to do what I’m going to do and fuck the rest of the world” attitude. Really hope he does start hammering more often too early or too late because then I have definite grounds for complaint and then it will be more likely that I can do something about it.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 Sure enough, Doc O feels I should be at 88 mcg. She said she can’t make me do anything I don’t want to do, but really believes it’s necessary since my thyroid only puts out 50% of what it needs to and that number will probably go down in time.

I asked her what the odds were of me being flipped from hypo to hyper, and she said the chances were very low. I told her I was going on vacation and didn’t want that playing on my mind while I was gone. She asked me when we were leaving and I told her January or February was most likely, and she said I had plenty of time to know how my body was going to tolerate it. She also reminded me that I could have an anxiety attack for any unrelated reason at any time. I agree, and as I told her, I believe the anxiety started with the levothyroxine, but other things in conjunction with it fed off of one another and I had a bit of a domino effect going for a while.

Her mood seemed a bit different this time. Like she didn’t really want to see me. Maybe I read her wrong and maybe she was just pressed for time or upset about something else, but it almost seemed like she wasn’t exactly glad to see me. She didn’t rush me, though. I doubt it’s got anything to do with me, and this is the way she probably is most of the time, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with my not being able to keep my appointment with the psychiatrist. Or maybe even my message to Doc C somehow got back to her and she finds it disturbing. Remember? People always seem to know my business as well as be connected to someone I’m no longer connected to. Like I said, I doubt it had anything to do with me personally. I was a bit surprised she didn’t comment on Tom not being present this time around. There were a few times she smiled and went off-topic, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that she continues to do her job properly.

When we were discussing anxiety and whether or not the medication was likely to cause it, she reminded me that a lot of things can get the heart pumping that has nothing to do with it. An example she used was how much she hates scary movies.

“I love scary movies,” I told her.

She said, “Okay, bad metaphor.” And then she said that she didn’t enjoy riding roller coasters or find watching videos of roller coasters entertaining.

I told her spiders could get my heart going, and she knew how I felt, saying she’d recently found a black widow in her vegetable garden. I told her that it so happened that we were bombing the house at the moment. “For black widows?” she asked.

“No,” I told her, “for any and all spiders.”

Anyway, she doesn’t think I have anything to worry about and reminds me that going from 75 to 88 isn’t much. It’s like standing by the ocean and throwing in a salt tablet. Well, can you find your salt tablet? she asked.

She also said she thinks I overthink things at times. I told her I think she’s right. :)

Still, I am a bit nervous about it and I’m not going to start until the weekend when Tom will be here, even though it’s going to take time to be a problem if it’s going to be.

She also said it makes no difference if you took two 75s one day and a 75 the rest of the week. It still equals 88 a day for a week, and no matter how you take it, it’s all the same. If I do run into any trouble, however, she said not to stop the medication. Just call her and get to the lab so they can see if there’s a connection to the levothyroxine or not. Past experience has taught me this is very important, too. I stopped the meds when I first ran into trouble and that caused me to test as hypo when I KNOW I was hyper. It just would’ve been nice if the bitch I last saw had warned me that could happen.

I mentioned the strange throat pain I’ve had a few times and she wasn’t sure what to make of it, but suggested allergies could’ve had something to do with it. Unless it becomes a regular thing, I’m not going to worry about it.

Out of curiosity, I asked her if the dose increase would affect my weight and told her that while I haven’t dieted recently, my weight still won’t respond to diet and exercise. She said it might help a little, but probably not much. I figured as much, but at least I don’t have to worry about gaining. Good enough for me for now, though she did say my weight was down from the last time. I was like, really? I thought it was the same. But it was down 2 pounds.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2015 What I read yesterday about the throat pain I had, which was a lot like what I had when I was on Prozac, suggests I could have swollen lymph glands. It lasted most of the day and then it just turned itself off in an instant. Thanks to the shitty timing, I really thought the first time I had it that it was caused by the Prozac, and I even found some reports online complaining of that. New things really need to stop happening when other new things are going on so I can tell what’s what! It said that the most common causes are allergic reactions or infections. I don’t feel like I’m infected and I downed a yogurt before it came on. I’ve never had problems with these yogurts before, though.

I only heard about 12 wallops with Bob’s beloved hammer yesterday and it was softer than usual. I’m sure there will be more to come soon enough.

Yesterday we got a bill from my dentist charging me for the special fluoride toothpaste and part of the exam. Tom started reading off the items, saying, “Fluoride toothpaste, gum probe exam, speaks 6 languages, going on a cruise in January to see sister for first time in many years…”

At that point, I burst out laughing because I thought he was joking. He knows that we chat along the way and that I did mention these things to both Holly and the dentist. They were quite happy for me, especially at the prospect of seeing Tammy for the first time in so long.

Sure enough, though, it really was listed on their summary, LOL. I was surprised since that doesn’t have anything to do with my oral health. To be more precise, we may go cruising in February, and I actually speak more like 5 languages while I understand 4, and those I speak aren’t all up to speed. I’m fluent enough in ASL and Spanish, and of course, English, but my Italian is a little slow, and my German grammar is a nightmare. Still, I do well overall in Language Land.

The only dream I remember last night was living in a house in a rural setting. It was nighttime and I saw what I knew to be the headlights of Tom’s car approaching the house. Jesse magically appeared and for some bizarre reason, I was worried that Tom would get the wrong idea when he got in.

When Tom entered the house, however, he was all excited for me because he had this antique highchair of all things that I supposedly had been looking for.

Later…

We went to Target earlier. I got a pair of silk panties, some treats, pine-scented air freshener, a pack of 30 Twistables colored pencils, and a pair of pantyhose that snagged as soon as I put them on.

I'd say it's too hot to have to worry about Bob stirring up any racket for the rest of the day, so that's good.

Even though I shouldn't be, I'm still nervous about tomorrow's appt.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2015 Still nervous about Monday’s appointment. It’s like I want to just get it over with but I also never want Monday to arrive. I almost feel like a kid being sent to the principal, LOL. I know what she’s going to say and it’s not going to be what I want to hear.

No racket next door yesterday, but I’d be willing to bet just about anything that he’ll work on his damn walkway sometime over the next few days. This is a 3-day weekend for Tom, too. It’s going to alternate between 3 and 2 over the next few weeks.

Not sure what we’re doing this weekend, but I am sure we’re changing the rats’ cage later and going out on the bikes. Monday, as we go to leave for the appointment, we’ll be bombing the place. We’ve seen some pretty big, fat and scary-looking spiders in here. The day before, we’ll bomb the shed, as that’s where the rats go when we bomb.

Tammy called to ask what sweepstakes site I used to use. Not sure why she didn’t just ask on Facebook, but at least I got to hear that she sounds pretty good. It had been a while since I’ve heard from her anywhere. I knew she was busy with the new house, but didn’t know if she’d been sick or what. They do testing on her every few months and she has her good days and her bad, she says. I just wish she and Mark would get off the damn cigarettes. She’ll never be perfect if she quits, but she’ll be a million times better.

Later…

So we go out on the bikes (it’s freezing out!), pass Bob, I say hello, and he ignores me. Fine, cock. Be that way.

Either way, I know I could go over there and make peace with them, but I’m not going to apologize for what I’m not sorry for. I would rather disagree and not speak than speak after I told them what they wanted to hear. If we were the same age and both planned to be here forever, that might be different. For now, he makes more noise than he needs to being just a few yards away from someone else’s house. Other than the contractor, no one else has made a fraction of the noise he’s made, so there’s no need or excuse for a lot of it. He chooses to do what he does and not consider those around him. When Virginia told him to ask if we could hear them doing laundry in the early mornings, he didn’t forget to ask us. It’s quite obvious that he didn’t ask us cuz he simply didn’t care. A lot of people are just like that.

He’ll either move on in time or forever hold his grudge, probably the latter. The more I’ve gotten to know him, the more I see that they’re not the nice people I thought they were, especially him. I don’t need the “grumpy old man” shit in my life and so I’ll just ignore him back. I also don’t trust my temper either. If he says anything rude to me I’m gonna want to pop him, and I’m not going to jail for this cock just to lose my freedom, be denied my meds for who knows how long, and then have to pay a fortune. Really, I hate it when people get all pissy-assed when you let them know they’re annoying you. His wife wanted to know if they were disturbing us and I told him. I just don’t get that or why some people take things so wrong and act like you’re making an unreasonable statement or request of them. If I didn’t know any better I’d think the freeloaders in Phoenix were asked not to breathe. Meanwhile, this one’s old, it can’t be out and about that many more years, and I’m not going to let it get to me.

Jim did say hello to us as we passed him afterward, which kind of surprised me. I would think that Bob would be quick to tell him that he now hates me and therefore he would ignore us too, but I guess not.

Later…

Looks like we’re back to the afternoon net games. The net just cut out when I was trying to tweet about my throat pain. Oh, and sure enough, the cock next door just started hammering. It’s not as loud as last time, but I’m sure it’ll pick up in volume and annoyance soon enough. So far I only heard like a dozen strikes, but give it time.

As Aly pointed out, it could be that he didn’t notice me or was simply lost in thought and that may be why he didn’t at least appear to acknowledge my greeting. The guy is also hard of hearing, but I don’t care. I just don’t care.

I am a little worried that if he’s turned against me, he’s going to turn against Tom, too. It would be incredibly rude of him to ignore Tom should they see each other outdoors, but that’s not the main point. It’s not that Tom would fall apart with a broken heart if Bob failed to return a hello, but if Bob ignores him, he may think something bad is going on other than my being annoyed by the old fart.

Anyway, I have this mysterious throat pain when I swallow that’s similar to when I took Prozac. Swollen lymph glands and ear infections can cause this, I just read, along with some other things. It’s common. I don’t feel like I have an ear infection, though I can say I haven’t felt as energetic lately. At the same time, I’ve been up 18-19 hours the last few days. Hopefully, I’m just nervous about my appointment and Andy waking up for the second day in a row with a bad vibe concerning my health is just a coincidence. He told me about this before I even mentioned my throat pain. Chances are, nothing new is wrong with me and he’s just picking up on my appointment nervousness.

While I’m thrilled for Tom and Andy that their problems are minimal, and while I know it’s a waste of time comparing, I can’t help but wonder why. Why have they got 1-2 conditions while I’ve got 6 or 7? Andy has high cholesterol and sleep issues, and Tom has just high BP. But I have the ear, asthma, allergies, a sleep disorder, a dead thyroid and high cholesterol. I guess I won’t count the ingrown toenail since that’s no longer an ongoing thing.

Just saw next door’s SUV leave. Shit, it’s just Virginia. Figures. Let me guess… Bob’s about to get louder now, right?

I do worry about encountering a whole new health problem if they can ever safely get my thyroid stuff where it should be. The only issue I have with last year’s trauma (besides the PTSD I’ve suffered on account of it) is that I wonder if it was a preparation of sorts for something worse to come. If anything worse is to come it’s got to be OMG kind of horrible since what happened was horrible enough. I had that feeling when they threw me in Florence Jail, and I was right. It was as if it was to prepare me for Estrella. And was the hotel shit to prepare me for the unemployment nightmare?

Tom suggested I try to eat the number of calories it would take to hold me at 120 pounds, saying I’d lose weight if I stuck to it. He’s trying to lose weight himself, but I’ve totally given up. It’s hopeless and I know it. One site told me that for a woman my height, weight and age with moderate activity it takes 1993.5 calories to maintain 150 pounds, though with Hashimoto’s I’d gain on that amount easily. 120 takes 1797 and 110 takes 1732.5 while 100 takes 1666.5. They’re WAY off. I could maintain 150 on that last one, but I still say 1200 would hold me at 120.

Not. Very. Doable.

Another site says I need to eat 1150-1350 to lose (which is more reasonable) but doesn't tell me what I need to eat to maintain a lower weight. Maybe I'll go with 1300. Not super easy but more doable than 1000 or so. Or maybe I’ll just accept that I am the size I was meant to be.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2015 I haven’t been sleeping well lately (probably because I’m nervous about Monday’s appointment). so I am kind of tired. I’m also still pissed over next door’s racket yesterday and his I don’t give a shit attitude. I went to bed deciding that was it. No longer would I be the considerate one. The quiet one. The respectful one. I’m giving it all back. As soon as the hammering starts, I will open the window and blast the shit out of my music.

But then I felt a little hesitant to do so because I don’t want to annoy innocent people around here who have nothing to do with it, not that anyone will complain on me since it would be the daytime and no one seems to mind noisy neighbors in the west. I also hesitate a bit because I want to be obvious without being that obvious. Maybe I should wait for two or three more hammering sprees before I give it back? I also don’t want to disturb his wife, who is always quiet. Then again, how could I? If she’s ok with his racket, she not only would be ok with mine, but she couldn’t hear my music inside their house anyway. Eh, they won’t care about my music even if they could hear it. Even Virginia said not to worry about that, to open the window, do what I want, etc.

I still can’t believe he suggested I consider getting an office because he’s going to be making noise from time to time over there. That is just so fucking rude and I don’t care what anybody says. I realized that just because most people wouldn’t consider him rude and would consider his racket normal daytime noise, as long as I consider it rude and distracting, then that’s exactly what it is. At least to me, it is. We all perceive things differently, and well, is there really any right or wrong way to perceive things? IMO, he’s loud, rude, distracting and annoying when he hammers and uses loud power tools, especially when it’s on unnecessary projects. I understand that replacing a damaged brick walkway is necessary, but just as I suspected it would, it’s going to take weeks, if not months, and it’s still annoying either way. Pretty sure I saw a bunch of bricks piled up against this back wall, too.

He wasn’t the only one pissing me off yesterday. Now that the leaves are coming down faster there’s been more landscaping. I heard scattered bursts of blowers on and off most of yesterday. Very loud and very annoying. I’m not going to open my window and blast music every single weekday, so maybe my best bet, since my laptop is portable, is to work in whichever room is quietest at the moment. Maybe I’ll just work in the laundry room when I’m up during the hours of 8am - 4pm. That contractor is easier to hear in there, but he’s easier to drown out than Bob is, and the laundry room is farther from Bob than the living room and bedroom. Besides, I haven’t heard any sawing from that guy in months.

All in all, Bob shouldn’t have the right to build unnecessary birdhouses unless he makes sure others can’t hear him, but he does have the right to repair his walkway, like it or not.

Meanwhile, he’s 86. How many more years could he possibly have the energy and strength of a 20-something? I should be glad for the noise they don’t make. They hardly ever have company. They don’t have brats over there that aren’t supposed to be there. They don’t have mutts. They don’t have a motorcycle or other vehicle that’s overly loud.

Got my new rat ring yesterday and I love it! It’s super cute and comfy.

Later…

Since I’m stuck in my secondary office and I’m limited as to what I can do right now, I thought I would just go on a private bitchfest. I try to keep positive stuff public and negative stuff private. I don’t need anyone judging me on the things that bother me. Like punching someone in the gut that has a stomachache.

I have equipped my laundry room office with a stash of water, incense and some mint lip balm. I even wheeled in my comfy chair. I took Alexa in here to play nature sounds and I also have an earplug in. Shitty way to have to live, but as long as Bob’s alive and able-bodied, he could go months without making a racket, or he could do it regularly. All I know is that right or wrong, I’m sick of hearing it.

Initially, I thought I would wait until he started his shit before running into the laundry room, but I would rather just work there during the daytime and not know when he starts this shit. Ignorance really is bliss at times, and what I don’t know can’t piss me off. On the other hand, if I could know exactly when he was going to act up and I could mark it on the calendar, knowing what was coming when would make it easier to deal with because then I would know upfront how many days it would be worth coming in here. This is still a better place in the daytime because it gets me further away from the landscapers. Some of them, anyway. The other day they didn’t even wait till 8 o’clock to start up.

A part of me started to think, aw, it’s too bad we’re not on better terms. We’re going to be neighbors for another decade or so. But then I remember his classic Western I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude and his rude comments about getting an office.

Yeah? Why don’t you pay for that office, Bob? And why don’t you even drive me there, too.

Argh! If it’s a sin to want to slap an 86-year-old man, then I’m going to hell if there is one.

Let me guess… Virginia is just as pissed as he is. No way she would say something like what Tom would say which would be something like, “Well, it is kind of loud.”

I’m just so pissed off because again, I’m limited as to what I can do. I can’t watch TV because of the sound machine, yet the TV wouldn’t be enough to drown out any hammering or sawing. Too bad I’m not into role-playing. I could just lose myself in fantasy for the next six hours, LOL.

I’m not going to be able to proofread this with the text reader because that too, requires a quiet background. I guess I will have my nighttime activities and I will have my daytime activities. This will have to be posted later on.

Did some surveys and read some other people’s journals.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2015 Not much new to update on. Just that I had weird dreams instead of negative ones for a change. I dreamed that Tom and I were hanging out and I asked Alexa what the temp was to be that day. She said 128°, LOL.

Then I had a second dream where I was telling Tom about the first dream, and then I suddenly asked, “Is that the flag?” when I heard this rattling sound. He said it was, and I knew it was windy out by the way the pole rattled in its holder.

Then I walked into this small but sparsely furnished room supposedly in our home. It seemed to have hardwood floors. A rat was sleeping in a cage against the back wall, and the room’s single window toward the right was open.

Later…

I am so fucking pissed now. It was a horribly noisy morning. The landscapers are coming around more and more now that the leaves are coming down faster, and Bob is STILL working on the fucking walkway.

When I went out to ask him if he was still working on it (to see if he would tell me how much longer it would take) he asked if he was bugging me. I casually mentioned working and he asked where I worked. I told him I usually work in the living room but would take my laptop in the other room. Then he tells me that he’s going to be making noise from time to time over there and that I might want to consider getting an office.

Gee, thanks a lot, Bob. Really that is just so fucking rude and inconsiderate, even if most people wouldn’t think so. Ok, so technically, he does have a right to repair his damn walkway. He also has the right to do unnecessary projects like beat out some birdhouses for his grandkids. Rude or not, like it or not, daytime noise simply is acceptable. I can’t expect him to stop living his life just because he’s annoying the fuck out of me.

It was just his “fuck you, I don’t give a shit” attitude that got to me. At least that’s the way he seemed to come off to me anyway. Perhaps I would have the same attitude if I were here first, but that’s not the point at least in my mind. In my mind, it is just so fucking distracting and annoying, not to mention unfair. We don’t make him listen to us nearly as much. I just hope that now that he’s irritated with me (unless I’m reading him wrong) he doesn’t actually set out to make more noise. Even so, I know I should do what I should have done decades ago… accept that my neighbors are going to be noisy at times, some worse than others. I’m simply not meant to have lazy neighbors who like to sit indoors in front of a TV all day or online (they don’t even have a computer, as I suspected) any more than I was meant to be tall. I was meant to have outdoorsy neighbors who always like to do loud projects, and if it weren’t this, then it would just be noisy company. Even Tom said…I did know that the garage was there when we moved in here. Yeah, but I didn’t know that so many people around here were going to use their garages as little workshops.

I take some solace in knowing that this guy can’t live THAT much longer. Will he really be hammering away like this when he hits his 90s four years from now? I just fear that if we’re still here when they do die, the next people will be a lot worse. It just doesn’t matter what I get for neighbors. Whoever’s closest to me is the noisiest or at least runner-up. Doesn’t seem to matter what age, gender or color. You can be a young welfare bum, a middle-aged woman, or an old man and you’re still going to drive me crazy at times if you’re the one next to me. I always look around at different locations within the park when I’m out and about and wonder if that particular place would be quieter. But I know that if I lived there it wouldn’t be, and it might even be worse.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2015 I had very negative dreams last night filled with much desperation. The question is, were they fueled by my upcoming doctor's appointment? Are they a sign that trouble is ahead? Or were they simply just because?

If I don’t hear from you for a long time on Facebook, I delete you. Two recent deletions were Jessie and Kim. Then yesterday Kim messaged me to say that she was not only still recovering and undergoing physical therapy for a car accident she was in two years ago, but she was just in another one and is hardly ever on Facebook. I think it’s time for her to spend less time driving and more time on Facebook in her case. This is the third accident that I know of. She rear-ended her boyfriend one time back in the 90s, LOL.

I caught Bob and Jim on their morning walk yesterday and gave Bob his mail.

We ordered some more bedding for the rats, plus I ordered a set of six glow-in-the-dark nail polishes, a tiny rat ring, and neon pencils. I got the pencils and they’re way overpriced and under-neoned. The pink is bright and the orange is somewhat bright, but the green and yellow look like barely visible pastels.

It’s supposed to drop to just 51° this morning, so I have opted to run indoors instead of ride outdoors. If it’s breezy out that makes it worse, and it is a bit breezy this morning.

When I looked at the map and the areas of the country they expect to be wetter this winter, we’re right smack on the edge of the line between wetter and warmer. So I guess it could go either way for us.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2015 I saw a movie about a happily married woman who was a sex addict. She had it all… Great family, great career, great everything. While I was never a sex addict, the movie brought me back to the 90s and some of the shit I went through back then trying to get more sex from Tom only to feel rejected in the end. Also, trying to conceive the child I once wanted so badly. There is nothing more humiliating than knowing you were considered attractive by society’s standards (would I have been a T&A dancer if I wasn’t?) just to have to practically beg your husband for sex.

Although I knew deep down from a logical standpoint that he was the one with the problem, it really has a way of making a woman feel less than attractive. I could have gotten just about any man in those days, not that I would want them, but the one person I loved enough to marry, definitely left me feeling deprived and neglected in that department a lot of the time until I got older and my own appetite began to fizzle out as my aging hormones died off. I know the Hashimoto’s has affected it as well.

There is nothing more frustrating and depressing than wanting something so bad that you can never have. Knowing that it was such a normal, everyday fact of life made me want to beat my head into the wall all the harder. I wasn’t asking for a million bucks. I wasn’t asking for a mansion on a private island. I just wanted a normal sex life and a child. That, on top of a lot of other shit I went through in life, is what convinced me that I was absolutely nothing in the eyes of God, should one actually exist. The legal revenge sought on me 15 years ago was the final straw. The poverty trip of the '00s really slammed the nail into the coffin as far as me ever forgiving any possible God up there. No matter how many good things await me in my future, I will always loathe the hell out of God. There is only so much we can forgive. He could’ve prevented a lot of what I went through, yet He chose to sit back and let it happen. Again, this is if he even exists. I understand that there is still a chance that there may be absolutely nothing up there and that the things that happen to us are simply random events.

If Helen hadn’t shown me that literature to prove that Tom really did have a genuine sexual problem, I may still believe to this day that he purposely allowed himself to get hard but made sure he didn’t cum most of the time. I totally believe without a doubt that he truly did have this problem; I just think that it was a problem he was glad to have. I think it was hard for him to say no to something he knew I wanted, and that if you wanted a kid as bad as I once did, he would’ve sought help for his problem. But the fact that he knew he had a problem and wasn’t willing to do anything about it, well, that pretty much tells you something right there.

I’m glad in the end that my desire for a child faded with time and age, but I will forever resent what I had to go through. Random event or a punishing God at work, it was utterly depressing and frustrating and it had a way of making me feel like a real freak at the time, no matter how much you know it’s not your fault. Tom led me to believe that it was at times, intentional or not, but I know it was nothing I said or did. He was the one who had a physical problem that affected him sexually. I’m sure he’s always had this and always will. Kudos to you, however, if you have a problem you’re okay with because I would think most people would go out of their minds if they could get excited but not get off. That would leave me personally feeling beyond frustrated and teased to hell and back.

It was like I swapped roles once I got with Tom. My exes wanted more sex than I wanted, and it was just the opposite with Tom. No matter whom I may or may not lust for, Tom is definitely the only one I have ever truly loved. You’ve got to love someone to stay with them given the way our barely existent sex life was. I think most people would have left him over it. Sex is more important to most people than it is to me. Sure it was much more important to me when I was younger, but I guess I just don’t see the world through the same eyes that most people do.

Tom and I have been more like damn good friends for many years now and I don’t know that I could ever get myself interested in having sex with him again if he suddenly wanted it. I don’t even know if a gorgeous woman (the gender I’m still predominantly attracted to) could do the trick for me. Sometimes it bothers me that that doesn’t bother me. But I guess in the end I’m just a little more willing to accept myself as I am than most people would be.

Later…

My dreams have taken a very negative turn and have been filled with lots of desperation. It’s the usual hotel and poverty bullshit. In the first dream, I didn’t know Tom and I was on disability again and about to be kicked off. But this time I had no loving husband to fall back on.

I asked to meet some guy over the phone that I knew as a neighbor-friend, but when he insulted me by asking if I just wanted to “hound” him, which I knew to mean burden him with my troubles, I didn’t bother meeting him.

My mother was in one part of the dream and I was also living in a hotel. The last of my money was running out fast and I knew I had to find a job and then miraculously figure out a way to hold my schedule so I could keep the damn job. I talked to one of the hotel staff (probably in the housekeeping department) and asked if she could help me out by giving me a job. She said, “What are you going to do? Expect to save enough to get a place of your own?”

I told her that I was planning on staying indefinitely at the hotel, knowing that the job wouldn’t pay enough to support a place of my own. I asked again if she could help me out and she said, “Yeah,” but before she could give me any details, someone came up to her with something urgent they needed to discuss with her.

At this point, I woke up for a bit, and then when I fell back asleep the damn dream continued. This time, however, I knew Tom. He was staying in the same hotel, just not in the same room for some reason. My body was getting weak with hunger and I went to the room in which I thought he was staying. I pushed the unlocked door open, but when I saw that both beds were occupied, I realized that wasn’t his room. I then ran back to my room to call Tom, but the call wouldn’t go through. Instead, I kept getting these weird messages. Frustrated and hungry, I went to the hotel’s restaurant and just as a waitress came to take my order, I managed to get ahold of Tom. I told the waitress to wait a bit, and then I was walking with Tom to his room an instant later. “Ever feel like something’s trying to keep us apart?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said.

Then I said something like, “All for trying to make things better.”

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2015 Wow, another house went up for sale down the street and they’re asking $170,000 for it. It goes to show we truly did move at the right time. You’d never get the kind of deal we got on this house now that the economy has improved as much as it has.

We got a piece of Bob and Virginia’s mail, which I’ll bring to them in the morning. I don’t know why Tom didn’t just bring it over when he picked up the mail, but I don’t mind bringing it over. I just hope that if anybody around here gets a piece of our mail they will care enough to do the same for us.

Yesterday my allergies were the worst they’ve been in the 2 years and 2 months we’ve lived here. I hadn’t had any problems and so I dropped my nasal spray down to once a week. Got to make that twice a week from now on.

I hate it when people make a statement without elaborating, leaving me to have to guess at the millions of possibilities the statement could mean. Really wish people would just come out and tell me things. Really, it’s like just say something if you have something to say, and do it with enough explanation for me to understand why you made your statement in the first place. You don’t need me to prompt you to go on. Tom and a few others I know are like that and as harmless as it is, it frustrates me at times.

He will say something like, “Work sucked today.” Naturally, I am expected to pump in for more information by asking how it sucked. And then I end up telling him, “Now couldn’t you just have come out and said ‘work sucked today because blah, blah, blah?”’

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2015 Hard to believe my youngest niece just turned 25. The last time I saw her she was in diapers and couldn’t even talk. Hopefully, I am only a matter of months away from seeing her and other family members, and no medical drama gets in the way of that.

My dreams turned negative just hours before picking up my health test scores online yesterday. It’s the usual shit I have when things aren’t running smoothly… poverty, being stuck in places I don’t want to be, etc. As long as I’m not falling from 20-foot shower stalls, getting my throat slit, or stuck in riots, I should be okay. My experience, however, has been that the worse shit I go through in my dreams, the worse shit I am likely to go through when I’m awake. Everything else in life is fine, though, except for those damn numbers.

In last night’s dreams, it was noisy neighbors and a strange duplex with no solid wall between us. The noisy neighbor was repairing skirting around their home, but in reality, none of these houses have skirting because they’re set at ground level.

The duplex was weird. The wall that ran between the two stopped about 3 feet from the front exterior wall. I could peer around that wall, down a narrow hallway, and into their kitchen. I guess a couple with noisy brats lived there. I peeked in late one night and there was just enough light to see most of the room since they left a small light on, probably over the stove. It was a big kitchen and very orderly. It might have had blue wallpaper with some kind of design.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2015 My numbers were posted today and while they’re not bad, they’re not good either. My TSH is up to 10.61 from 8.35, and my T4 is down from 1.4 to 1.1.

I’m not surprised, as frustrating as this is. Just had a bad feeling, and I’ve also been a little more hypo lately… dry skin that goes beyond being older and living in the high desert, dry hair that breaks off or falls out, feeling cold at times even when it says it's 77° in here, struggling to keep my weight down, feeling lightheaded at times…

I can live with being overweight, but I do NOT want to get obese. Might not have much choice in the end, though. Hashimoto’s controls us more than we control it in some ways. I just wonder how many more years my antibodies are going to have these anger issues with my thyroid and feel the need to bully the thing as much as I bullied my poor classmates in grade school.

What scares me the most is knowing that the doctor’s going to want to bump me up to 88 mcgs. Tom doesn’t think I have anything to worry about, but I’d worry about all that horrible heart-pounding anxiety returning. It was literally artificial terror and not something you can just “turn off” at will, no matter how much you may come to understand what’s going on. It’s like smoking a joint and trying to tell yourself not to feel high. So telling yourself to “calm down” when you’re adrenaline’s pumping simply isn’t an option.

Tom saw next door’s walkway when he was out watering earlier and said it looked like Bob finished it while I was on nights. Hopefully, he’ll take a few months off before the next project.

My dreams were negative last night. Perhaps a sign of the bad number report? The only neutral one was a voice message from Bob P, who I knew when I lived in S Deerfield, MA in the '90s and who died in prison in 2006. I don’t remember what he was saying, though.

In another dream, we lived in a house that looked nothing like ours (as usual), and for some strange reason, I had fallen asleep on the floor by the front door. I was suddenly startled awake by the sounds of someone just beyond the door, and my first thought was that Tom had come home from work. Then I realized that they were making this ongoing struggling sound that suggested they were trying to break in, and I remembered hearing about a rash of break-ins in the area.

Torn between throwing the door open and surprising them or running out back, I decided my fists and my own anger issues would be worthless against any weapons, so I grabbed my cell and ran out back to dial up the bacon.

Then I had another negative dream where I was told that we might have to rent a place. I knew this meant we were in the poorhouse again and could no longer afford to own. The strange thing was that I seemed to live with my mother and not my husband. I totally hated the thought of returning to the mainstream where you hear a helluva lot more than you do in a retirement community even on its noisiest of days, so I tried to look at the positives to renting instead. No having to pay for things that broke and things like that. I still wasn’t happy with the idea of renting.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 Sat down to make out the grocery list as I do every Friday, and I asked myself, “Which would you prefer… a menu closer to 1000 calories a day which will drop you the same few pounds you keep on regaining because you know damn well you can’t stick to 1000 calories for more than a few days or a nice comfy 1500 cals that’ll keep you 30 pounds overweight so long as you work out?”

I chose the latter… keep the fat, avoid the hunger/fatigue, and take the damn 400-500 extra cals. :)

Since Tom needed to take the six days of vacation time he has accrued for the rest of the year, we had to decide on six long weekends or taking it all at once. I told him that since we didn’t have any projects going on that would take more than a day or two to complete, it was totally up to him. He decided on six long weekends.

Although it’s not always perfect, I still can’t believe there’s a program that will type everything I say. I would have killed to have this in the '80s and '90s.

I had a dream that some younger woman who was laying on a couch and about to take a nap and that has been a well-known celebrity of sorts, said to me as I sat on the edge of the couch, “I have millions of dollars yet I still don’t have it all in life.” I somehow knew that she meant that she hadn’t yet found love. I leaned down and hugged her and said, “Te amo.”

Then I dreamed we lived in a place with two floors. Tom and Andy were upstairs watching TV and I was on my way out of the downstairs bathroom to go up and join them when I spotted a big gnat flying around on the floor. I wanted to kill it before I went upstairs but it kept getting away from me.

I wonder if Bob’s been working on the walkway while I’ve been asleep this week, or if something up there is “conveniently” having him wait till I’m back on days again.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 The blood has been drawn and the numbers are in, whatever they may be. I should know what they are before I see my endo on the 21st. What pissed me off was that they had an order in for a lipid panel as well. Really wish they’d told me this and that my PCP had been clearer to me on when she was having what done because I didn’t fast. The last time I had blood drawn I fasted because that was when she told me they were going to test for that, but they never did. Fine. I’m not interested in returning to statins any more than I want to up my levothyroxine dose. I just hate it when they confuse me like this because the only one put out by them not clarifying things, in the end, is me. Why don’t I just fast for every blood test I have? That way there’ll be no questions or problems.

Wish I had more to say other than that one communication rant paragraph, but I don’t. Nothing else is going on at the moment other than that my period was just 3 days late this time around, and that tomorrow I’m going to enjoy sleeping without the pressure of having to get up by a certain time. :)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 My period is late, not surprisingly. I start to get PMS as if I’m going to be on time, then some of the PMS backs off and my period ends up late. That’s the way it has been lately anyway, and I’m guessing it has more to do with menopause setting in than my thyroid.

My dentist appointment went great. Janet left, though. Some older blonde lady has taken over as office assistant. Holly liked my rainbow dress and the doctor liked my hair. Holly cleaned my teeth and did a gum probe instead of X-rays. You want your numbers to be between 1-3. Last time I had some 4s (I hate that number). This time I didn’t have any, though. I only had a little bit of tartar buildup in the hard-to-reach areas. The dentist, who was thrilled to learn that I’ve been flossing religiously for the first time in my life, said she also flosses every day yet she too, gets tartar. I was actually wondering why she lost so much weight. She was always thin, but she almost seems too thin now, a serious rarity for a middle-aged woman who’s had three kids. She still seems healthy, though. Who knows, maybe she’s got hyperthyroidism.

I got another tube of Clinpro 5000, which is a fluoride treatment that I use at the end of the day in place of regular toothpaste. I use my regular toothpaste at the beginning of my day and that’s when I floss.

They also gave me my goody bag, which is going on the cruise with me. That would be a toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste along with a small thing of floss. We both use electric toothbrushes. I have five regular toothbrushes right now, so between Florida and the ship, they will come in handy.

Since the cracked filling isn’t critical right now, we’re going to wait until next year.

Because it was very hot here today, we went to the pool when we got back. I was surprised at how chilly it was. Way too cold for us, so we hopped in the Jacuzzi instead.

I am way behind in editing my book. I’ve got to edit future books as each chapter is written instead of after the entire book is written. It might seem less overwhelming that way. I will go get some editing done soon… to the thump, thump, thump of distant car stereos. Hate that sound.

Later…

Andy said several people in his NA meeting dumped him and he wonders what kind of gossip is going around that they believe. It certainly could be false rumors and bullshit gossip, but did he ever stop to think that maybe it’s him? His trust issues in paranoia can really get to a person at times. A lot of people have problems with people like that or that can’t shut up, though I will say that when we spoke on the phone he didn’t ramble nonstop as usual. I was able to get a word in edgewise and he even asked me if I had anything to tell him before we hung up.

His weirdness and inability to tolerate those who are different than him might be a factor as well, but I doubt it. I think it’s just the types of people that go to those meetings. I’m not saying they’re all bad news, but I think Andy has always had a tendency to gravitate toward people he’s better off without just like I once used to. He said he doesn’t really want to be friends with them anyway because a lot of them have done drugs that he’d never again touch. I personally would never want to be friends with a former druggie or drunk, especially in person, in case they had a relapse. Drunks and druggies don’t just hurt themselves. Their addiction affects everyone around them.

He said he might take a cooking class or go see a shrink because God knows he could use one now. I’m glad that he at least recognizes he has a problem and is willing to do something about it. Never be afraid to reach out for help, I told him. Not sure the cooking class is a good idea, though. He’s already a pretty good cook, and that might feed his obsession, pardon the pun. He hasn’t talked food for the last few days as much as he usually does, but if I’m right about him having even the slightest case of a food addiction, then he should probably avoid food-related activities.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015 Tom was telling me how contradicting they’ve been at work, saying “no more OT,” and then asking people to stay late, especially him since he’s the only one in his department capable of doing his job. Then they say they want people to take more time off to use up more of their vacation time by the end of the year, LOL.

As I’ve mentioned before, my logic says we’ll be here till he retires, but that’s not what my vibes say. We were talking about how much we’d get from the 401K (about 15K) if he were laid off and how many months we could get by, minus unemployment, and how we’d probably just sell out and leave Cali if that happened. Well, I realized that that’s probably why my vibes don’t go with my logic; because very few jobs last 12 years (which is how long he has till he retires) without a lay-off. And they do lay people off once a year at his place. They just let some people go, so he’s safe for a while.

So we will enjoy what we like about both the park and the house until he’s let go, and then we will take that opportunity to escape the state we never should’ve moved to given how expensive it is and how many terrifying moments we’ve had here. Oh, those childhood dreams of mine I just had to chase, LOL. Only they never included poverty followed by medical drama. But yeah, my guess is that unless we win big bucks or sue someone silly, a lay-off will cause us to relocate before retirement does, but that’s ok.

I go to the dentist tomorrow, and then the lab on Thursday. Really nervous about my TSH score, but trying not to be. The numbers are going to be what they’re going to be, and well, I can say “no” to any increased dosages she suggests, can’t I?

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2015 Went out bike riding yesterday evening and could barely breathe when we got back. The day before it had been windy which stirred up pollen. I was wheezy and congested for the rest of the night.

At 9pm we went to Denny’s where I got a totally unhealthy and delicious meal of chocolate peanut butter pancakes, bacon, eggs and French fries.

Tom asked me if he thought I would want to go to the fancy restaurant on the ship. Haven’t really thought about it, as I told him. He said he doesn’t really care for fancy restaurants. To me, as long as the food is good, it doesn’t matter if it’s “fancy” or not.

After Denny’s, we stopped at Walgreens. I got new knee-high hose, Grape Shifter topcoat for nails, and another adult coloring book with flowers, butterflies, paisley designs, and stained-glass windows. It also came with six 2-sided colored pencils.

I had a dream that something really loud was running next door, and as I went to open the front door to see what was going on, a stairwell appeared before me as if we were in an apartment building. I headed down a few floors and looked out the window at an abandoned house across the street where a giant rat was moving about. Then I suddenly realized I was naked and ran back upstairs. On my way up I heard Virginia talking on a phone and saying, “Well, shit happens.” And then I heard her call my name. I threw something on in our house-turned-apartment, then went to talk to Virginia, only I had no idea which door to knock on.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2015 Yesterday Andy told me he wanted to call me and that, “You’ll never guess in a million years who I just got off the phone with.”

I was frustrated at first because I hate it when people don’t just come out and tell me things. I jokingly said to him, “If it’s Stevie, I don’t care.” I’d be happy for him, but he knows I’m not into celebrities like he is.

He said if it was, he’d have already called me. My next guess was Shelley, but then I realized he wouldn’t get that excited if it was her since he’s pretty much gotten over her and her lack of interest in being his Godmother.

Then he gave me a hint by quoting a “famous” line from the edits I’d make of our days as prank callers. It still didn’t ring a bell, but my next guess was Fran’s brother Ricky. I guessed correctly.

I once wasn’t very picky and choosy when it came to friends, unfortunately, and didn’t do a very good job of filtering out those who weren’t quite right in the head. I was too tolerant and too forgiving. One of my “friends” was an older guy we dubbed “Nervous,” and a guy just a few years older than me named Fran. Both had emotional issues and both were outcasts, only Nervous was actually intelligent and reliable. He, unlike Fran, was independent and owned a car. Fran always lived in group homes. He was last living in an apartment where people like him lived and received daily visitors from their social workers. The social workers basically took care of everything… where they lived, where they worked, etc.

Nervous died of a heart attack in his 50s in the mid-90s, and I cut ties with Fran not long afterward. The final straw was when he billed long-distance phone calls to Tom and I. I’d basically had it with his lies and the grief he would give me. He’d steal little things from my apartment when I lived in Massachusetts where Andy currently lives, and well, there were just too many things that had added up to show that Fran wasn’t worth my time and that I had outgrown him. We all do stupid shit when we’re young, but most of us move on and mature while others don’t, and I knew Fran would always be Fran no matter what.

While I was still living back east, Ricky would join Andy, Fran and I on our prank-calling adventures whenever he would visit a friend. Ricky had a very fierce, commanding voice that would make for the perfect DJ. Using three-way, we would have him call and pick on Nervous.

Out of curiosity, I looked Fran up online as I do with almost everybody I’ve ever known at one point or another, and found he died in 2011.

So Andy wanted to chat live since we hadn’t done so since November. Even though I didn’t see the point since we’re in touch online every day, I know it’s not as easy for him to type, so he called at 8pm my time only to get a busy signal. My first thought was that he dialed wrong since as Tom said, cells don’t do busy signals. Then he got a message saying all circuits were busy. Finally, I called him and the call went through just fine.

It turns out that Ricky has been attending his NA meetings after 27 years of sobriety. They would chat here and there and he’s had his number for a while but hadn’t called him. The guy he wanted to sponsor him isn’t available, so he’s considering asking Ricky. Well, they got to talking on the phone when Ricky started mentioning his dead brother Fran. That’s when Andy started to connect the dots in his mind and ask Ricky his last name.

Then Andy said, “OMG, what if I told you I have you on tape making prank phone calls from back in the late '80s?”

At that point, Andy explained how he and I once knew Fran and the calls we would all make, and Ricky remembered everything. He did say, however, he didn’t want to hear them because he’s not like that anymore. This is no surprise. Most people do change after 30 years or more. Ricky, whose voice has changed a bit over the years, has been staying out of trouble and he’s an advocate for the homeless now.

He was the one who found Fran dead in bed, who apparently died of natural causes. Even though I knew I would never again want to resume our so-called “friendship,” I was always curious as to how he died. He had high blood pressure and diabetes, and he was obese. Andy said he didn’t feel it was best to tell me a friend died online and that was part of why he wanted to talk live.

“What friend?” I asked him with surprise. Despite his memory issues, which are both serious and annoying, I was surprised he didn’t remember that A, I cut ties with him years ago, and B, I was the one who told him a few years ago that Fran died.

Andy also told me that before Fran died he confessed to his brother about being gay. I clearly remember him being genuinely interested in some girls, though I always wondered if he could be bisexual. He was probably attracted to guys more often than he was to girls, but it was much harder to hook up with the same sex back then. It wasn’t as accepted, and the only place to meet was gay bars.

Nonetheless, Ricky assured Fran that he was still his brother and that he didn’t care about his sexuality. The only problem he had was when he stayed over at Fran’s place one night and Fran had a couple of guys over. Ricky slept on the couch and he awoke one night to find Fran’s guests getting it on on the floor right near him. I guess this made Ricky uncomfortable and he nearly got stabbed that night.

Anyway, we fixed my phone today. It somehow lost connection with the network and so we had to reset it.

I’ve had a sore throat all day and I don’t know why. Hot beverages and lozenges don’t seem to help, but my body’s kick-ass immune system should fight it off soon enough.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2015 Made the rats an awesome hammock from an old, flattened pillow. I just used drapery hooks to hook the corners to the bars of the cage.

Not much else going on at the moment. I don’t know why, but there seem to be a lot of loud car stereos going down the freeway today. That’s usually something I mostly hear after 6 PM in the summer, so why it’s more obvious today is beyond me. Maybe because it’s windy. You even hear the traffic itself a lot more in the wintertime than you do in the summer.

I had a strange dream that we lived in one of two 6-story buildings consisting of apartments or condos for older people. I don’t know why, but we moved out of the ground floor of one building and onto the fourth floor of another.

A woman who lives there gave me a white rose in person and then added me on some social site online.

I swam in the pool and then turned and said to Simone, “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m just sorry we got rid of all your stuff.” Only Simone was solid black. I still miss that little devil at times and totally regret her not working out. Fucking asthma. I really wanted a pet that lives more than just a couple of years.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2015 Tom reminded me that around here a two-bedroom apartment wouldn’t save us much money at all. That’s true. It’s not what I really want either because then I’d hear shit day and night instead of just in the daytime. I just want to stop hearing blowers, hammers and saws nearly every single day!

Still getting in as good of shape as I can for the trip. Bumped my speed up to 5 MPH even though I said I wouldn't. I sprint until I've torched 15 cals, then rest for about half a minute and then burn another 15. I do this every half hour to an hour until I've burned 300. I also work my arms and abs. Should make climbing those rock walls on the ship a lot easier!

As I told my sister, I will never again order a nightgown in size L. What the hell was I thinking? If I had a twin I could stuff half of her in the thing with me!

Tom and his group won a pizza at work yesterday. There were 8 groups that had to make freestanding structures from newspapers. The one who had the tallest won the pizza.

They’re building a giant FBI building across from him, too. They’re even giving the street its own name. Something like Freedom Lane. I guess it has to do with some government motto or something. Yeah, they really gave us a lot of freedom for a few years there, didn’t they?

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2015 I don’t get some people at times. How can you complain that it’s mostly black people in prison when they’re the ones who are statistically responsible for committing most of the crimes in the first place? That’s like complaining that there are too many rapists in jail. Well, if they would just stop raping, there would be fewer of them in jail, wouldn’t there be? I just don’t understand why so many people have their heads in the sand where this violent, manipulative group of people is concerned any more than I’ll ever understand why they were so needlessly cruel to them 100 years ago. If you still think racial profiling is really that big of an issue, then wow, the blacks and media really have you brainwashed. My disgust for them is totally reasonable and justified as it is with the Muslims and I will never feel an ounce of guilt or shame for it.

I noticed that Norma was looking for Kayla’s Secret, a story I wrote several months ago and had on Blogger until I moved it. Wow, she would have had to scroll quite a ways down my wall to find that link, unless she bookmarked it.

Now that the guy on Prosebox has fixed some privacy issues, I was thinking I would make my storybook there public and just make the stories private that I don’t want to share. Then I will share the link on Facebook. I don’t want to share any links to Prosebox on other sites that Molly could see in case she becomes a problem again, though she probably already knows about my account there somehow, or could at least find out about it. Still, why make it easy for her?

Sarah sent me one of those stupid things that you forward to 15 other females so that something good would happen in 9 minutes, and all about God another superstitious stuff I don’t believe in, so I just ignored it. I don’t have 15 other females to send it to anyway, and I’m sure most of them wouldn’t appreciate it if I did. A lot of people hate those “chain letters.”

Virginia just took off for the second time in an hour or so. Unfortunately, she goes out a lot more than her husband does. Leave it to the quiet one to be the one to take off more often. I am seriously getting really fucking sick of hearing noise coming from over there every single day lately. But I found out what was going on and I was even in their house yesterday. No, he’s not beating out some new birdhouse.

When I went out to water the cactus plant on the table, Bob was right there. I mean literally right there between the side of his garage and the retaining wall. I asked what was going on and he said that he was repairing the bricks in the walkway running alongside there from the front of the garage to the back. He was beating on what looked like strips of wood and metal, but when I looked over the wall and down into the little walkway, I thought it looked beautiful, so I don’t understand what it is he thinks he has to fix. Tom said that years of rain can damage the cement. Well, I guess it’s a good thing it hardly ever rains here so that if he can ever finally finish this, I shouldn’t have to hear this particular project again for quite a while.

After I picked up our mail, I brought them a puzzle I didn’t want, preferring to go to their front door because I didn’t know if they would feel comfortable with me going through the garage. They do have the garage door open unless it’s at night or they’re both gone, but I chose the front door anyway. I called out “hello” and heard Virginia say to come on in.

I stepped inside, and wow! Their place looks pretty modern, even though I know it’s got to be almost as old as our house since they’ve been there since 1988. Obviously, they have remodeled it, and they’re just the type of people who would do that, too. Although Virginia said something about her place being white and mine being brown. “Not anymore,” I said and told them how we painted all the rooms a different color.

They have a very different layout than we do, making their place appear smaller than ours, but maybe it really is. It’s still gorgeous and it’s heaven compared to a dumpy old trailer. They also have a two-bedroom. We have a very open, spacious floor plan where you can see the living room, dining area and kitchen all at once. I had to step around the wall in order to see into their dining area and I could not see their kitchen at all. I couldn’t even see down their hallway as easily as you can see down ours. The place looked immaculate and not at all cluttered. Didn’t care for their ugly plaid couch, though, LOL. We have plain glass in the doors to our hutch, but they had cut, decorative glass that was really beautiful. However, I chose to use our hutch to display some of my doll collection and I wouldn’t want anything other than plain glass.

She and Bob were sitting at their kitchen table eating lunch. Looked like chips and sandwiches on paper plates which they were just finishing. I asked if they like to do puzzles, and Virginia said, “He does,” so Bob took the puzzle while I apologized for disrupting their lunch. They said I wasn’t disrupting them, but I didn’t stay long anyway. Then again, so what if I disrupted their lunch, LOL, when they disrupt my peace at times. Really, please tell me that this walkway project is going to be over soon and that we’re not going to go right into some whole new project that I also have to listen to despite the cooling temps. Even when he isn’t doing something loud, the general movement I hear from over there gets annoying and distracting… things sliding around, things clanking to the ground, etc. IDK, maybe we should just sell out and get an apartment. I mean, if we’re going to have to hear shit anyway, why not save a few hundred a month while we’re at it? I also don’t have much privacy sitting out there with him practically an arm’s reach away.

Fire and ambulance just went by but unfortunately, it wasn't because one of Bob's hands fell off. They came from further down the street.

Last night I had a dream that I opened a door somewhere and looked out into the corridor just as a woman stepped toward me, crying and rubbing her bruised wrist. Then I looked at the guy standing near her and knew he was responsible for it. I said, “If you ever do this to her again, I swear I’ll break your fucking arm.”

I slammed the door and turned around to where Tom and his family were seated at a long table and repeated what I told the guy. Instead of commending me for sticking up for the woman, I got condemned for swearing. They would do that, too.

Then I dreamed I was going on a cruise by myself, something I would never do in real life. Any kind of vacation by myself would be utterly boring. Vacations are meant to be shared with the one you love. But I was going on this cruise by myself in the dream when I realized the ship I was to be on that was present a second ago had suddenly disappeared. I asked this guy where the ship had gone and they said, “It’s over there now.”

My gaze followed where they were pointing and the ship was now a couple of hundred feet away. For some reason, I was desperate to get on the ship, and I literally dove into the water and began to swim toward it as the guy was shouting out my name.

Later…

I am so on the verge of dumping Andy! Really I am getting so totally fed up with the same old cycle of bullshit. Instead of any thank yous or gratitude for trying to boost his insecure spirits last night, I get insulted instead and now I am even accused of causing him to have dreams about his insecurity. So now I’m supposed to be responsible for his dreams as well as all this other shit he’s imagining? Maybe he’s having dreams of insecurity because he IS insecure. He himself said he was. I’m tired of this guy blaming everyone but himself for his problems.

I once read a long time ago on an old Twitter account of his under a bogus name something to the effect of “It’s okay to throw in the towel at times.” He’s right. Our friendship is getting to be a lot more work than it should be because I have to spend so much time reassuring him in correcting his misunderstandings, false assumptions and paranoia. I know some people think the whole world revolves around them and that everything is about them, but that isn’t so. The old Jodi used to fuss, fight, kiss and make up with certain types of people, but the Jodi of today tends to avoid negative individuals. No one’s worth the time and energy when there are so many positive people out there.

Supposedly I was leaving comments on Facebook pertaining to conversations I’ve had with God knows who in order to avoid a confrontation that is supposed to be aimed at particular individuals. Yes, some chats have inspired certain thoughts about which I have made statements, but there is absolutely NOTHING that bothers me about him that I haven’t already told him directly. The only difference between the two of us is that when I ask him politely not to do something or I point out that something in particular he does is annoying, he does it more, whereas I tend to respect and consider other people's feelings unless they’re asking something totally unreasonable of me or something I couldn’t possibly deliver even if I wanted to.

There are basically two reasons I’m getting fed up. One is because I’m tired of spending so much time having to defend and explain myself, and secondly, I don’t care for his personality. When I pull back and look at him objectively, and ask myself if he’s someone I would want to strike up a friendship with these days if we were just meeting now, there’s no hesitation. The answer’s a quick, “no.” We’re just too different these days. We used to have more in common, but it’s like nothing’s changed with him over the years. Yeah, he’s got his own place, he’s got his own business, he’s drug and cigarette-free, but he’s the same person I’ve always known… immature, selfish, accusatory, paranoid, insensitive, repetitious and very annoying at times.

Although they are mostly not his fault, his memory issues and his stupidity get old at times as well. I have to constantly repeat myself and explain things to him like I’m talking to a child. No wonder he’s never been able to acquire any real skills, though he was once an avid keyboardist. I just wish, as I’m sure he agrees, that he didn’t smoke pot for as long as he did. It has really stunted his maturity and his intellectual growth as well as fucked with his memory. Even cigarette smoke can lower one’s IQ/learning ability.

Unless I’m being just as paranoid as he is, it really truly does seem that he gets off on annoying people at times. IDK, maybe deep down in his subconscious, he’s hoping to drive me away. Some people are like that where they want to end a friendship but they don’t want to be the ones to do it. Well, again, I’m getting very close to being the one to take the honors because I’m getting frustrated. When I think of all the shit I’ve had to put up with from him over the last five years, it’s all starting to really add up. I only held on this long because I felt guilty for dumping him back in 1999. I realize, however, that I have the perfect right to decide who I want to be friends with. No one, including me, should ever feel obligated to be involved in a friendship that they feel their heart is in less and less as time goes on. I have a right to be with people I feel I’m more accepting, tolerant, positive, intelligent, and that I have more common ground with.

Had I known for a minute that he was going to say and do a lot of the things he said and did over the last half a decade, even though he has apologized for most of these things, I never would have contacted him five years ago in the first place. First he prank-called the shit out of us when we didn’t have money to spend on minutes to delete all the shit off our phone.

Then he insulted us in numerous ways online. He knew virtually nothing about why we haven’t had any contact with his family, yet he was making all kinds of comments in their favor as if he were an expert on the situation. The same with the freeloaders next to us in Phoenix. He knew some of it, but the things he said were incredibly cold. Just totally mean and cruel. Imagine, for example, that someone just raped you and then your best friend turns around, only knowing part of the story, and made YOU out to be the perpetrator, all the while defending them and accusing you of things along the way you knew absolutely nothing about. Yet I supported HIM 100% when he told me about his own past legal battles.

Imagine being told it’s sad that you don’t want to have more friends when it’s even sadder that you’re stuck having to clean toilets for just a few grand a year and even sadder that children die of cancer every single day. Really, if you cry tears for the happy, can you possibly have any tears left for the unhappy? All I know is that as soon as people start pushing me to be someone I’m not, I’m gone. No one has a right to sit in judgment of me any more than I have a right to judge them.

Imagine being called fat when you’re not that fat yet the other person is seriously obese.

Imagine being called an “excuse queen” for your sleep disorder when he has a sleep disorder as well (sleep apnea).

Imagine being laughed at and called a chicken because you have a driving phobia. See, that’s the wonderful thing about him… If he doesn’t have or understand a particular thing, then it can’t possibly exist. His way is the only correct way, in his mind. Oh, the power some people falsely flatter themselves with believing they have at times. Again, he has apologized for this and knows that I wish to hell I didn’t have this sleep disorder, but no one in this world has this amazing power and control over me that would cause me to lie about it. If the truth was that I really didn’t want to work, I would come out and say so. No one can spank or punish me for the truth. I’m not a child.

Again, he’s apologized for most of these things, but that’s not the point. The point is he did these things and it’s not something one can just forget even if you’d like to. Just the fact that he’s done this as little as a few years ago tells me how little his personality has changed over the years and just what kind of person I’m dealing with. He supposedly did some things as a form of revenge against me for dumping him back in 1999, and later claimed to regret doing this, saying that he had become anti-revenge. Yeah, but the snide remarks and taunts about my driving phobia, along with a few other things, came after our friendship had been re-established. I wish to hell I could jump in a car every day and go to work, even if it was to some nothing little job that paid minimum wage, but then again, do I really need to defend and explain myself to anyone? Even my sister once told me a long time ago… “When you know the truth and that’s all that matters.” Damn right!

I also get tired of him claiming how he loves to be unique in one breath while equating others to himself in the next breath, most of the time in an inaccurate way. If he’s miserable, then he wants the rest of the world to suffer along with him. If he’s jealous, then you are too. If he’s broke, then you are too. No matter how many times I have tried to tell him that he’s him and I’m me, it’s in one ear and out the other. Lately, giving him any kind of advice (I told him not dwelling on food so much might help when he was saying on Facebook how frustrated he is with not losing any more weight) is like talking to the wall.

To continue down the list of things that have pissed me off over the years, not only have I been called a liar when I have been telling the truth, but he has jumped the gun and made false accusations numerous times, and has even used pictures to offend and annoy me on Ask. Yeah, I wasn’t stupid. He sure thought I was, though, until I spoke up about it. So yeah, I can see where someone as paranoid as he is may think things are aimed at him. He admits that he has been very insecure this year, but people can only be so patient, understanding and supportive for so long before they finally throw their hands up in frustration and have had enough.

His lack of sensitivity and compassion says a lot about him as well. Then again, he’s kind of strange where that’s concerned. He can be as compassionate as he can be insensitive. He has provided coats for the homeless during the winter and has had cheesecake desserts sent to me to help take my mind off of the medical drama I was going through last year. At the same time, he rarely commented on any of my journal entries that covered those horrible times and believes that Robin Williams “chose” to throw it all away.

Sorry, but you are totally naïve if you believe there is a single person out there who is so damn happy they can’t stand it and can’t wait to “throw it all away.” I understand that it may be hard to accept and imagine that there really are medications out there like what he was on and like the Prozac I was on that can make you suicidal, but that doesn’t make it untrue. I can’t imagine living in Alaska. Doesn’t mean some people don’t. Anyway, some people can be helped, while unfortunately, some are beyond help just like when it comes to certain cancers and other things. I know the guy has a right to his own beliefs and opinions, but I prefer people who don’t think the way he does because they tend to have the kind of personality I prefer.

I’m no genius myself and I’m not always the perfect friend, but I would never defend my friend’s perps, or insult and pick on someone for a lifestyle that was harmless, or their fears and phobias. That was OMG kind of insulting, apology in the end for it or not. I hate people like him who expect to be accepted (for being gay and other things) all the while they think they have the perfect right to judge and critique others. Because he’s so miserable himself, it’s like he wants to believe that others are as well, saying he feels “sorry” for Tom and me because we choose not to have a lot of friends. Yeah, and we feel bad for a guy stuck having to clean toilets and who is forever single. Funny, that he should say this because as he himself admitted, he likes being a loner and doesn’t have many friends either. I don’t think that’s his choice, though. I think he has a hard time hanging on to people because he just doesn’t get along with most people.

Since Facebook shares our interactions with our other friends, I once saw him telling someone that guys can’t wait to get away from him when and he starts talking to them. Did he ever stop and think that maybe he needs to just shut up and listen for a while? If you came up to me with nonstop ramblings I’d want to get away from you, too. That was the one negative aspect of his visit. He went on nonstop about his celebrity fantasies.

As I told him, we all have our passions and obsessions, but most of us learn how to control them at least to a degree. First I constantly had to hear all about God and Stevie Nick’s, and now it’s nothing but food, food and more food. No wonder he’s not losing any more weight, older or not. He’s obviously developed a serious food addiction. Any idiot can see this based on how often food is on his mind and how often he mentions it. I have pointed out that this is annoying, and I shouldn’t have because now he is mentioning it more. Yeah, that’s how considerate my dear “friend” is at times.

He admitted that he’s been very insecure this year, but no matter how many times people try to tell him that all that matters is how he feels and what he likes/wants and that he should stop worrying so much about what others think, it doesn’t seem to help the guy. All I know is that it has to do with something bad happening when he visited family in Florida. I guess they are annoyed with his immaturity at times as well, including his hobbies. They call his imaginary band tours immature, and technically they are. Most people in their 50s don’t live in a fantasy world. But in the end, it is totally harmless and it’s not like he can’t distinguish fantasy from reality. Well, then again, that’s debatable if one person believes in God and the other believes that’s just a fantasy passed down from one generation to another as a means of coping with this thing called life. Still, it’s annoying and it’s immature, but it’s harmless. I think there’s something else going on I don’t know about. I don’t like to pry or make people feel like they have to tell me things they don’t want to tell me.

Yes, he’s immature, and yes he can be annoying at times, but I would rather be annoyed than cruelly insulted. Also, if someone can’t handle the little things we ask of them, I’d hate to see them try to take on anything big.

“Sounds like I’m about to get dumped,” I just saw that he said on our private Ask account. Is that what he wants? This isn’t the first time he’s said that, so this reinforces my suspicions of him trying or at least hoping that I’ll dump him. sighs with frustration At this point I’m not sure what I’m going to do, though walking away would probably be the smart thing. Again, I’m experiencing more frustration than anything else lately. Friendship shouldn’t be that way. Now I’m afraid to post anything on my Facebook wall viewable to him, knowing he may very well take it personally. Again, yes I’ve made comments inspired by conversations with various people, but that doesn’t mean everything’s aimed at him or all about him. I actually prefer to voice my frustrations about people on Twitter, though absolutely none of it is stuff I haven’t said to the person directly.

Part of me wishes I had someone to talk to about the situation who knows as much as I do about it, but the only one who knows a lot about it is Tom, and he doesn’t even know every little single thing. He’s always told me to do what I felt was best and never that he was leaning toward not dumping him or dumping him.

I also don’t think it’s right to go to others about your problems with people. I’m sure most levelheaded people would tell me the same thing… got drama in your life? Remove it. Got paranoia in your life? Remove it. Not that I would ever wish him any harm or that all problems can be removed easily enough from our lives. But not contacting him would be plenty simple. Oh, I’m sure I would get a barrage of emails and phone calls, and maybe even a postal letter, but I know how to mark email as spam without reading it, I know how to delete messages, and I know how to write “return to sender.”

Tom suggests not worrying so much about what he says and just ignoring any comments I don’t agree with. That’s not always very easy to do with him, but it’s better than being all or nothing. For now, anyway. Like he said, though, it’s easier to ignore 100 emails than just 1 person who’s literally right in your face.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2015 My nail decals came in the mail yesterday. I like them a lot but they don’t last long. It’s one of those things that’s only good if you’re going to a party or some other event because, in less than a day, they start flaking off. There’re more raised than I thought they would be so even with a topcoat you can get a few hairs caught under them when you run your fingers through your hair, peeling the petals of the flowers off one by one.

I moved my laptop into the bedroom by the kick-ass sound machine shortly after 8 o’clock. As I was raising the shade in the window by the closet, I saw him go into the back of his garage, not surprisingly. I just never know when the banging will start. It has started as early as 8:30 and as late as 1:30. Really wish he would do this shit after 8 PM or before 8 AM because then I could do something about it. Then again, maybe he will be perfectly quiet today. The point of working in the bedroom in the daytime is so that I don’t have to know what’s going on and be distracted from what I’m doing. It’s good to be in here for other reasons as well. Once those leaves start coming down, they’re going to be out there with the flowers every single day. They don’t want someone slipping on a pile of leaves and suing them.

Worked out hard yesterday, but could only burn 240 of the 300 calories I planned to burn because my hips got stiff and then I got a cramp in one of my calves.

One thing I have learned about working out with Hashimoto’s (or any other condition that prevents you from losing more than just a few pounds) is that you will always look like you have more fat than you actually do. I was lying on my back and I had my right arm extended above me. My elbow was bent so that my hand was over the middle of my chest. Towards the left of the crook of my arm, just above the elbow, was a little bulge. I touched the bulge and clearly, it was muscle. But to an outsider, it looks like fat. When you have muscle underneath a thick layer of fat, all it does is push that outer layer of fat out. It’s very hard to tell just how much muscle I have, though you can see some of that in my shoulders, upper abs and calves.

One person mentioned their legs rocking from the knees down while above the knees looked frightening. I can say the exact same thing about mine, and even my arms. It’s like the lower part of my limbs doesn’t go with the upper part of my limbs. I have slender forearms with these sausage upper arms that look like they exploded on one end. My upper abs are somewhat flat while my lower abs look like they’re trying to run away from me or something.

LOL, Alison seems to be pretty convinced that I’m tracking Ask. I wish I could track that site as well as a few others. This explains why she hasn’t come around lately. I still think she was in on some of the trolling way back when, knowing I would automatically assume it was Kim or Molly.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2015 My LiveJournal reader is back.

It wasn’t even 9 o’clock when Bob started his fucking hammering. Had a bad feeling about today too, when I got up. Maybe we should just forget Hawaii or Florida and just go rural again when he retires, getting a chunk of land in a cheaper state, which would probably have to be in the west somewhere. The closer we are to people, the more we hear them. Meanwhile, the guy is 86 years old. How many more years could he possibly have the strength to do this shit? I just don’t want them moving or dying before we do because I fear something a lot worse ending up over there. This isn’t the 70s. Noise is just as accepted here these days as it is in the mainstream. I dread the day they start allowing big dogs in the place and okaying them being left outside round-the-clock.

It seems the West in general has a totally different attitude when it comes to noise than the East, same as it does with dogs. Most people out here think it’s wrong to take a dog indoors while most people in the east deem it cruel to leave them outdoors 24/7. I spent 26 years in the East and almost the same amount of time in the West, so I am familiar with both cultures. It’s like it’s more “ok” to be obnoxious and noisy in the West. I mean, look at Tom, a native Arizonan. He doesn’t think Bob is being rude at all and says this is simply what people do (though Tom’s not noisy and no one else in our immediate surroundings is out there beating and banging on things). The West has more of a live-and-let-live attitude when it comes to noise. People expect it, they accept it, and complaining about it is like a sin. Well, my dear husband whom I love very much is entitled to his own opinion, but I find the racket very annoying and distracting, “normal” or not. People just don’t care, though.

Andy asked me if there was any way I could be just as noisy in return. Well, yeah, I could sit out there and beat a hammer or a stick or something on the patio table or blast my music with the door open, but I have better things to do with my time and I don’t care to be just as rude as he is. Would two wrongs really make a right anyway?

Instead, I unplugged my laptop from the 30-inch monitor in the living room and I took it into the bedroom. Because the living room is so huge it’s harder to mask sounds in there with the sound machine, unlike in the bedroom. The master bedroom is huge too, but not cavernously huge. It’s a pain in the ass because the laptop key functions are limited as opposed to my other keyboard, but this is the only way to escape it when I’m on days until he either dies or gets too feeble to do this. As mean as I know it sounds, part of me wishes he would have a stroke that would limit his mobility. But this guy has just as much strength, energy and stamina as a guy in his 20s. He still walks and rides his bike almost every day. Of all the lazy guys out there that would like to sit in front of the TV all day and do nothing, we just had to get stuck next to another project junkie. I’d be willing to bet almost anything that he and his wife don’t even own the computer. Maybe not even cell phones. The research I did on them shows they have a landline. I respect the fact that they’ve been here a lot longer than me, that they’re very nice people otherwise, and that the guy’s only got so many years left to do what he loves to do. I just wish it didn’t have to be at my expense.

I hate that it’s already September. We’re already starting to have highs down in the 80s again. Before the month is out I’m sure I will get to be a penguin or a leopard at night. Sounds scary? Relax, I’m talking about my 1-piece fleece pajamas. One has skiing penguins all over it and the other has a leopard print.

I’m usually good at figuring out my own computer issues, along with things I want to do, but when I can’t… It’s Tom to the rescue. The Kindle cloud reader doesn’t support a text reader, so he helped me find one that does. Now I have the option of listening to stories as well as reading them.

I have been setting my little windup timer to go off every half hour at which time I run at 4 MPH for two minutes, burning a total of 20 calories. I do this until I have burned a grand total of 300 cals, which is about 15 sprints and 30 minutes total. I also worked my arms and abs. I would like to have 1200 cals a day but I still usually creep up closer to 1500.

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The God of the Woods

Author: Liz Moore

Genre/s: historical, mystery

Content/Trigger Warning/s: death, murder, violence, drug use, mental health issues, sexual assault, sexual harassment, period-accurate misogyny and homophobia

Summary (from author's page): When Barbara Van Laar is discovered missing from her summer camp bunk one morning in August 1975, it triggers a panicked, terrified search. Losing a camper is a horrific tragedy under any circumstances, but Barbara isn’t just any camper; she’s the daughter of the wealthy family that owns the camp—as well as the opulent nearby estate and most of the land in sight. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared in this region: Barbara’s older brother also went missing sixteen years ago, never to be found. How could this have happened yet again?

Out of this gripping beginning, Liz Moore weaves a richly textured drama, both emotionally nuanced and propelled by a double-barreled mystery. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded drama brings readers into the hearts of characters whose lives are forever changed by this eventful summer.

Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet, The God of the Woods is a story of love, inheritance, identity, and second chances, a thrillingly layered drama about the tensions between a family and a community, and a history of secrets that will not let any of them go.

Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-god-of-the-woods-liz-moore/20696242

Spoiler-Free Review: Oh, this was good. Fascinating and good.

A little like The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia, this is a book that’s more about the people involved in the mystery than about the mystery itself. The mystery just highlights all the various angles and nuances of the people involved, as opposed to be really being about solving the mystery itself. It also serves to highlight the REAL point of this novel, which is an indictment of classism and privilege.

Just to be clear though, the mysteries at the heart of the novel are pretty interesting in their own way; it’s just that I think they were the structure around which the author got to tell another kind of story, as opposed to being the whole point of the novel.

I know some readers found the narrative structure difficult to follow, since it meant the story kept jumping from past to present with very little clear indication of when in the timeline the reader is supposed to be, but I didn’t mind it very much. The constant sliding between past and present helps to highlight the characters even further, giving them a bit more life.

Speaking of characters, they are one of the best aspects of this novel. Tracy is easy to sympathize and empathize with, but I wish there had been more of Barbara from her own perspective, rather than as being seen through the eyes of those around her. I think getting a look into her mind, reading about everything happening around her from her perspective, would have been very interesting.

Equally interesting, albeit tragic, are Alice and her sister Delphine. Their relationship is equal parts touching and sad, though I did find myself wishing the reader had been given a chance to see things from Delphine’s perspective, just to add some more nuance to the events that transpired around her and Alice.

Actually, while the characters all shine in their own way, there were moments when I found myself wishing that other characters had been given a chance to narrate things from their perspective. I understand why the author limited the number of narrators but I do wish that some characters had been given a chance to speak up, as it were. They don’t have to be likeable, they just have to provide some more insight into the themes of this novel. In line with that, I think it would have been interesting to read a chapter told from the POV of one of the novel’s villains, mostly because it would make them more interesting, and also throw their villainy into sharper relief by showing that, yes, they are people too - and that we probably know people like them in real life.

As for the themes, this novel is primarily about classism and privilege, and how those two things let the rich get away with murder, literally and figuratively speaking. Over and over again, this book emphasizes this; in fact, the mysteries at the heart of this novel are about that. The whole point of this novel is that the rich will do anything and everything to keep up appearances, and to hang onto their money and their power, even if it destroys everyone and everything around them.

Overall, this was a very intriguing novel, written in very compelling language and populated by fascinating characters whose entangled lives reveal how wealth and privilege can - and very often does - bring out the worst in people. The timeline might not be easy to follow for some readers, and I do wish some characters had been allowed to contribute their voices to the narrative, but despite those minor nitpicks, this was still a fantastic read.

Rating: four and a half pieces of firewood

[faunastanza]

Thread into Althar

Thread into Althar, by Azlyn, Razca, Yurayana, Yevelle, Myandery, observed by Shizukan Despite how insanely overinvested this whole blog is in this comic, I don't actually check on Floraverse that often since it updates so sporadically. Like I said some time ago, sometimes months or even a year can go by before an update happens. Imagine my surprise when I did a periodic check on it as usual and saw that there were TWO updates!! Wow!! I went to check Glip's twitter for further context as Charlie Brown approaches the football every time, and of course, I landed flat on my back. Glip did have a doc they wrote up about how they regretted keeping someone on their discord from committing suicide because they were annoying though. This isn't a new sentiment for Glip at all - they've previously told people they'd be better off dead several times. Their total unawareness of how bad it makes them look is a bit striking though. "You said you don't care about Glip's real life, why do you keep checking their twitter?" It's true that I don't care about Glip's real life, I just want to know what's going on in their insane webcomic because it has some kind of sick hold on me, but the annoying thing is that Glip's real life is constantly bleeding into their comic. Is this character an actual villain, or are they someone Glip was mad at in their discord? Is this a plot development, or a veiled metaphor for a callout about them? Is this a character or is it just Marl or Pengo or Sila again? You constantly have to ask yourself these questions as you read the comic. I suppose it does make for a unique reading experience. For fun, here's the recent info Glip posted that may or may not influence this update or future ones - one of the mods on their discord got outed for being a pedo and a zoophile and was banned. This seems to happen a lot on their discord for some reason, it's so weird!! They're also in a feud with someone who knew the pedo who made a zine about their discord being a cult and claimed Glip was trying to human traffic them. "Who cares, this is unrelated drama" IS IT?? IS IT REALLY??? You can never be sure!! You'll just have to keep it in mind whenever you read a Floraverse update from now on!! They apparently also have a podcast of sorts where they talk about "the truth" of what goes on in the discord and such but the episodes are like three hours long and I feel like listening to them is taking things too far. I already know I'm staring into the abyss, I've got to have limits. Also, three+ hours??? I already spend way too much time thinking about all this crap as it is. Anyway, this is "by" a bunch of people but it's just the characters that are in the RP. We know Glip and Pengo are in the RP but how many other people, I don't know. They have multiple characters running around after all. We're introduced to a dude in a sombrero and a Hot Topic looking critter.

and an unpalatable muffin

Sombrero's name is Myandery and the Hot Topic thing is Shizukan. Myandery notices that Shizukan has a little compact from Teslic Yard and asks if it's supposed to have that. In response Shizukan holds the compact out out to Myandery, who remembers that Shizukan can't speak. It takes the compact while Shizukan whirls its arms around to make threads, just like in the title!!

 buy me on a shirt

Shizukan whipping its arms around serves as a way to scene change via the compact, so we're going to be hopping around a bit. We see Azlyn/Orobas finally! She's asking everyone for help with a ritual to help someone "whose name was injured". If you remember way back when, one of the ways to protect yourself from an angel was to repeat your name and occupation over and over. I'm assuming that's related but it's not explained so, who knows.

She says that his name was very important and that without it, we "lost him" for a while, but if they give him a new one, he'll come back. She says that we can find a new name for him with enough love, since love is about reaching out and inviting in. Azlyn says that Gaap is asking for letters of love, condensed into glyphs (Andre can't read, remember). She says the first part is writing out the letter, not just imagining it in your head but writing it for real. She says that she wrote one, but it's a little unorthodox.

Her letter is clearly about Amdusias, although she doesn't remember her apparently. She says that she knows her voice and her face, but when she thinks about it they disappear, like notes to a song she can't remember (Amdusias taught her a song and told her not to forget it, but she always does). She talks about how important Amdusias is and how she matters to her, and that even if she can't remember/doesn't know who she is, she knows something's missing and she mourns not being with her, whoever she is. She wonders how they'll meet and what binds them together so strongly that she remembers shadows of her even now, without fully knowing her. She gets teary, wondering when she'll meet her and that all she can do is wait. She then says she's a fortune teller, and a side effect of that can be prophetic dreams, so this letter is for someone she hasn't met yet.

Where this is on the timeline is unclear, and we're possibly in another frequency entirely so shrug!! We last saw Amdusias having nightmares or something on Trebol and when she woke up Orobas wasn't there, so who knows. I like this scene though and getting glimpses of Orobas and Amdusias again. Reminders of a simpler time and better characters in this comic's history...

where is my big-handed girlfriend

We cut to a brief glimpse of the Worthworm on the Andre painting, then Shizukan shifts the scene again. We meet a dude who looks like a cross between a snake and a mantis. This is Razca, one of the heads of the other religions. She talks a bit differently and capitalize random nouns. She's heard about Gaap's request for letters and want to address her congregation about it.

beware the heart tail Razca says that it might be hard to think of a good feeling to send out for Gaap's request, so she wants to talk about her own feelings in hopes it'll inspire their congregation to think about theirs and decide if they want to do Gaap's request or not.

Razca talks about loss and deaths in her family and how it feels to grieve and miss them every day. This is also well done and genuine, which makes me suspect someone other than Glip wrote it.

it sounds like she's talking about death but it could just be someone who left but eh, negligible difference Anyway, Razca says that because she wishes she could have that person back so much, the chance to bring someone back is very precious, so she's going to help Gaap as best she can. She says that some believe that people who've died should be allowed to rest, but she sees it as a chance for a new beginning and that if the ritual works, she wants to be part of it.

We get a brief shot of Andre when he burned Beleth to death, although in this shot he's burning an open door. Shizukan then cuts to a white uniqorn somewhere. A dog comes in and says that the Synemetrics are on the move, and asks the uniqorn if he has thoughts about Gaap's call for assistance. Turns out that the uniqorn is in charge of Psia'ago, or Pengo's religion I assume. He says that if people in Pengoism want to help out Gaap then fine, it's their call.

looks kind of like a mouse

The dog asks if Yevelle is also going to help, but he say he's hesitant to talk about love, and he thinks talking about love for a ritual is disrespectful. The dog, whose name is Hilo or Milo but the font is so weird I can't tell, let's go with Milo, asks if it's because Yevelle is afraid of being hurt. This question pisses Yevelle off as he says no one can hurt him. Milo is unimpressed, so Yevelle asks if saying "I am afraid" would please them. Milo says they just want to know what Yevelle is actually feeling.

Yevelle says he's asking his people to help constructively if they do decide to help Gaap. He hopes that the people of Althar will respond with love untainted by malice, as love tainted with malice can be hard to unravel if sweetened enough. Glip's mentioned malice a few times before, in particular saying it was what broke the Mask of the Sun and led to all those insane mspaint VNs a while back. Could be related, could not be related. Just making a note of it.

Milo turns to leave for their nightly rounds, as Yevelle instructed. Yevelle comes over to put their hood up for them, chiding them not to do anything he wouldn't do, and Milo jokes back while calling them Vel, so these two are either friends or an item. My money is on the latter.

We get a brief cut of Nuez looking at Phesund in her ugly fullbody paintbrush tail form. Shizukan tries to move the scene again but something wrong happens and there's static instead. We then get a goofy news report on the whole business from an unknown person. They call Gaap the "high priestident" which I kind of like ngl. The newscaster, a sun looking thing with a goofy face, says that the Payayan temple is near the Synemetric one, saying it's an eyesore, and brings us inside. There's a stripey cat walking around.

seems like they have consistent trouble with the word "president"

The cat tells Belnono (lol) to knock off the fake newscasting. Belnono is this ridiculous looking "dog" made out of leather straps and what appears to be a flat sundial for a head.

what

The cat's name is Yurayana and she is proportioned a bit like a triangle.

tapering up to a point Belnono has a moon counterpart called Belauna because of course. An unknown figure says something to Yurayana but we don't know what. The two dogs bicker about correlation and causation as Yurayana continues down the hallway. Yurayana tells them to knock it off since she's trying to focus. They ask if she's going to send a glyph, with Moondog sure that she will since she's good and kind and loyal, and Sundog expressing skepticism. This makes Yurayana snap at them angrily to be quiet, which scares them. She walks off in silence and the dogs follow her.

We get a brief shot of what looks like the plague doctor from last time approaching Nuez but she has a lot of weird wingy things around her.

no eyes and fire? lame

It looks like she might be protecting Phesund (birdform) from the plague doctor. Shizukan seems to regain control and switches everything back to Azlynobas. She talks about how to turn your letter into a glyph. Basically you think about your letter and then draw whatever shapes come into your mind.

The screen goes dim and Myandery asks if Shizukan came out all this way just to show it this. It tries to move its strings around but nothing happens, so it nods. Myandery says that the faces all looked familiar and asks if Shizukan knew it'd see familiar things. Shizukan shakes its head, then nods.

Myandery says their former teacher was in there, someone who used to be known as Andrealphus before Myandery came here (to Althar I assume). It says it knows that Andre is an important figure in Synemetricism and that its friend said Andre was an Arch Magni. Myandery then says that its friend used to be an angel (you can cure that??) and was responsible for "asking a question" that put us (not sure who the us is here) in Undertown, where angels hang out. It's where Glip and Pengo had that talk but I'm not sure if its where all the mspaint vns happened or not. Who knows.

funkopop coming soon

Myandery says it saw Dr. Curse (the plague doctor? but I thought it was that tv thing) and Nuez, who it says helped it with the ritual that "put intentions" into the collar around Shizukan's neck. It then apologizes if the collar is hurting Shizukan. Shizukan gives it a few looks and then waves goodbye and leaves.

We cut to Mel's house sometime later, and it turns out Mel was the beecat. They're with some kind of bizarre looking bird thing and a big egg. They say a synemetric came by talking about the ritual. The bird is TALwire- what??? Why is TALwire a bird??? WHat???? What???

if i open my mouth too wide my eye hurts When did this happen??? Oh, right, in the RP no one got to see I assume. Great! Great. That's great. Mel shows TALwire a glyph and says that they said stuff that sounded like "what you saw" but the paper has more details. They give a bunch of dates that's just when the RP starts. She refers to Andre as the "to-be-named one" and basically explains what you have to do to fill the RP prompt of writing a letter/glyph to Gaap.

Mel then says the bees were acting different and they got a weird feeling from them. They say the dance the bees did reminds them of when they left a fire on when they didn't mean to for a few hours. The fire didn't hurt anyone but it could have been worse. They say it also reminds them of when a Zweitru came to the door which reminds them of ANOTHER fire that sparked and scared them. They thought a lot about fires and the importance of ponds and water. Deep stuff.

The Zweitru came back later and told them about a Zweitru turning into an angel, but the Zweitru were annoyed everyone was making such a big deal about it, like it didn't matter much to them. They figure that they felt like people were more eager for an excuse to be mad at Zweitruity than worried about the new angel. You'd think the incredibly stupid name would be enough of an excuse to be mad but hey.

Mel then says they've been rambling and asks if they should go to Razca for help. TALwire says sure. They bring the egg. And then that's it! That's the end!!

What about all the Mesund Phesund Phesomme Deca stuff from the last VN? You fool. We'll never know. Glip mentions in the description that this has a glimpse of Teslic Yard (where? where myandery and shizukan were?) and again begs you to join the discord in BOLD. PLEASE JOIN!! PLEASE JOIN!! You can talk about the update too!! You don't have to RP!! PLEASE JOIN!! PLEASE JOIN!!! (don't join)

[hirunda-maxpw]

Who or what is a Hirunda?

I got tagged by the loveliest @soupum! Now, without further ado... Let's. Start. Sharing!

Who were you named after?

Shockingly, no one in particular: my parents had 2 names in mind and when they saw me for the first time, I didn't look like a Louis.

As for my inter-webs moniker, it was originally the PSN account my dad set-up on the first ps3 we had way back when. Since I mostly played LittleBigPlanet on his account, I hijacked it and the name Hirunda kinda stuck everywhere I went.

When was the last time you cried?

The last time I cried was when my dad picked me up on my last day working at a Korean fried chicken shop. I had just got rejected for another job I thought I had in the bag, the current job sucked ass for a variety of reasons and I was so exhausted I decided to not show up for my 4 weeks notice period (I had given my resignation on the same day). I was in a good position to fall back and bounce back (which I did) and things are okay now.

Working in hospitality is a lot, be extra nice & patient with hospitality and service workers.

Do you have kids?

Nuh-uh

What sports do you play/did you play?

I used to do Karate, got up to brown belt which was neat. The lessons and the vibe were chill. I stopped when we moved half-way around the world and I couldn't find a good dojo to continue. Now I rarely do sports.

Do you use Sarcasm?

Oh yes

we use it a fair bit at home for laughs and giggles, never being mean spirited.

First thing you notice about people?

Faces maybe? I don't usually think about that sort of thing too much, I wonder if I should.

Do you have any talents?

I'm decent enough at troubleshooting tech-adjacent issues. I'd also say I'm a decent actor*

*[Citation needed]

Scary Movies or Happy Endings?

I've warmed up to scary movies over the last year once I realized horror wasn't limited to jumpscares, though I'm a real sucker for happy endings.

Where were you born?

(in a) Bath, England (hehehehe)

What are your hobbies?

Playing video games

Acting. Recently got back into it with community theatre and I love it. I had to back out of a production because I was juggling too much at the time. It's a lot of fun but it wears you out, taking a break from it now.

Playing video games

Lego. Loved the stuff since I was a kid, still love it as an adult

Making video games (every full moon or so)

Did I mention playing video games?

Do you have any pets?

Yes! His name is Kedi: He is as much of an awful little scamp as he is lovingly irreplaceable

Exhibit A: The culprit

How tall are you?

Somewhere in the 1m 80~82cm range, I don't recall my precise height.

What was you favourite subject in school?

Drama(/Theatre): the only subject where fun was allowed! >:3

Second place is prob Maths

Dream job?

I think the world would have to become Star Trek (minus the militarism) before I call any job a dream job. Is space communism too big of an ask for this world?

And so, it is with a mighty dose of foolish idealism that I end this post. Imma pass the torch to @hiverious and maybe @pwdev, no obligations though.

[fairytaehl]

not a drama, but the only book-to-movie i ever really liked was "the fault in our stars" bc john green had personal direction in it, so it was pretty true to the book. i know thats not always easy to do, but if youre going to do "based off the novel" at least like... base it off the novel in a cohesive and dutiful way?

i also interpreted him with the kids as seeing him and his sister, which could be more of the reason why he wasnt bothered by it, but i also think ziqi is a big softie under it all even before miaomiao gets to him.

wait, i feel a bit foolish. when exactly did yao accuse fuyi in ep 12? otherwise, regarding your other points, i also completely agree that her memory loss also degrades the drama. not enough for me to feel strongly about that aspect, but still. i did feel like it was a cop out, given that it doesnt seem to have any clear reason, it just Starts happening (to my memory, i havent finished my rewatch), but if i wanted to be doyalist about it, i could make the excuse that since its supposed to be a dream, shes remembered more of the beginning, and as it gets further into the dream it starts to get foggy and dissipate, similar to when you wake up, you can remember a lot of your dream at first, but less later. idk, thats a complete excuse though LOL.

RIGHT? i also said "how is his percent capping at 20% right now" especially when he leans in so close to her and goes in for that hug. could he have been afraid to feel any more for her since he was sending her away?

i also wish that they had more "heres how it happened" verse "heres how its happening" but i suppose she changes so much, and with her memory loss, it becomes useless to do so, i guess.

side note, the bubbles werent CGI. i watched a behind the scenes and they actually have a guy with a bubble machine who slides in LOL. it was pretty funny.

yes! i do think they had a period of friendship, something i aim to explore when im done with my rewatch in fanfics. first of all, understandably so, but we got ROBBED on their journey to the imperial capital. they showed us a supercut of them having fun and getting along, but oh my god, theres so much more to that that we're missing! and we dont know ziqis percentage for a LONG time because of the dust demons not being there, so we have to make it up in our heads. i know thats already when ziqi they were feeling romantic towards each other, but they also danced around it quite a bit, and i feel like that time couldve been more bonding moments.

other than that, i think we dont have much time in the drama for them to have those moments, which is a little sad to say, but i think her not being afraid of his demon form completely shattered any form of friendship. it was like "oh. i want to be with you forever now." and thats fine, because i dont need "enemies to friends to lovers" or whatever. enemies (one-sided) to basically lovers is also good to me.

wow, you totally shook my world by saying that miaomiao took off his robe and saw him shirtless. we were not just robbed anymore. we were BURGLARIZED.

yeah i can agree, esp in regards to her seeing romance stuff, and i touch upon this in my review of ep 6 (basically finished, just missing some images), but i actually thought miaomiao was in her early 20s. is it confirmed anywhere? and because of that, i didnt feel any sort of way about how she acts, because i know people in their early 20s who act like theyre in high school. hell, i know people in their 30s who act that way too LOL. but its definitely prominent in dramas because thats just what seems to be more normalized. god forbid we have (forgive me for using a korean term here) female leads who arent doing aegyo.

ooooohh. yeah even after watching the whole drama through i didnt think it answered that question. and the last few eps were a blur for me so i dont even remember the charm demon stuff LOL. i just remember thinking, "damn! ziqi really loves to get himself caught into traps!"

i watched the show only earlier this month, so i was not present at all during airing, but LOL. as a big kpop fan, i wouldnt have thought anything of it, because if they cant dance, GET OFF THE STAGE!

Comments to lgief rewatch ep. 4

@fairytaehl

I wrote my comments as a post so I can format it for easier readability, and the reblog was locked for your post.

"which is nuts because why the fuck are you a demon catcher? "

He's a demon hunter because this is what Mu Yao wants. The drama hand-waves away the hardship and pain that comes with being a demon hunter.

In the novel, its clear that he doesn't want Mu Yao to be in a profession where she gets hurt and might die, but this is what she wants to do, so he can only support her despite the physical cost. He is often badly injured and comes close to dying in order to save strangers because he doesn't want to disappoint Mu Yao. It's Miaomiao that says while she finds it admirable that Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi are altruistic saviors, it's fine that he doesn't want to sacrifice himself to save strangers. He's not wrong for feeling that way. That she also feels this way.

"i know hes in the wrong. i know it was his fault and he had bad intentions, and his words in response to her were also not very kind. but… placating her and telling her he doesn't like arguing with her, that sister knows best, just because he cant deal with hearing her say these hurtful things anymore, and he cant handle it if his sister has such a negative view of him, all while hes trying to smile. its genuinely hurting him internally, as we see in a moment. "if you think it was me, then it was me." it was basically you, and it makes me frustrated to see him so upset over his own doing. i feel bad but i dont. hes trying so hard not to cry, but goddammit, you had this coming you bastard."

I love how you phrase it! I thought their conversation was so, so good. That Mu Yao is being too harsh, but Mu Sheng did do something wrong, and they both know it. Their complicated, messy relationship is so interesting, and I wish we saw more of it.

"crushing the flower in front of her and smirking as he does so… sir. please have mercy. a silent "this is what i do to fresh, pretty flowers" a.k.a. Her."

"crossing your arms across your chest is a physical tell for defensiveness and closing off yourself to the conversation~"

Your observation skills are so good! You catch so many little details. I love all the body gestures and movements that Esther and Ding Yuxi do in the drama. I wonder how much was improvised vs part of the script.

"i wont lie, this whole bit about how she knows about the ledger and letting it slide confused me"

Agree, and I thought it was weird he doesn't ask her why she wants to burn the Mu's ancestral map. 

In the novel, it's because she read the original work and she has nightmares about it after she transmigrates (I don't think this is shown in the drama), so she knows what he's going to do. BUT, she doesn't directly confront him about it. Unlike in the drama, she's very cautious and tries her best to not reveal any information that Lin Yu wouldn't know in front of Mu Sheng.

"ok, i need to ask, anyone understand these heart lake things?"

My guess is they're supposed to visually reflect the change in his emotional state. For example, in ep 18's script.

"△ The lotus in Mu Sheng’s heart lake suddenly turned completely black, leaving only half of the petals still red.

Demonized Mu Sheng: (Chaotic electronic music) I want... to kill him."

"the one where she throws him off entirely by acting all obsessed had him pause as to why she was going to such lengths to lie, and what her goal was. yes, he wanted to get her out because he doesnt like her at all, but that was so nefarious-seeming that he just… walked away. also, it was weird."

On one hand, I thought that scene was hilarious. Its my favorite scene in the drama, and I'm entertained enough to not think too deeply about it. This scene doesn't exist in the novel, but there are ones where he reacts similar-ish if you want an explanation.

In the novel, she constantly seeks him out to increase his favorability % and shows concern and for one reason or another will end up hugging him, and this leads to him letting her off each time. It's easy to see that he's touch-starved and longs for affection. Once he likes her even just as a friend, he can easily be bribed to look the other way with hugs or agree to her requests.

On the other hand, I think it would make way more sense if the drama followed the novel's scene order and had them playing 5-in-a-row games all night early on, and we heard his thoughts so the audience knows why this marks a shift in how he views Miaomiao.

How this is the first time he's learning something that's not for Mu Yao's interests, how he's been pretending to be bad at Go (and his skills as a demon hunter) to get Mu Yao's attention, etc. Its easy to see that he and Mu Yao haven't outgrown their relationship dynamic from their childhood, which was fine then, but has become an unhealthy codependency as adults.

If that happened before Miaomiao's fake confession scene, his response to it would feel less weird.

---

Some random thoughts after reading your post. We eventually find out that Mu Sheng has always known that the Resentful Woman is hiding inside Mu Yao, so what was his long-term plan? Instead of letting her know so they can work together to get rid of the Resentful Woman, he's deciding that he knows what's best for her. And, this isn't a problem that can go away if he hides it. The Resentful Woman will only grow stronger and be harder to defeat. So frustrating.

This is like Guo Xiu unilaterally making the decision to tamper with the villagers' memories. He's playing god, and there's no consequences to him other than his guilt. The script's narrative pushes the idea that this is for their own good and he makes up it up to them with his building talisman, but all he's really done is rob them of seven years. It's extra bad because the median lifespan for people in ancient times is low.

These villagers can't emotionally move on. In practical matters, this is an ancient world, and it would be harder for women if their husbands die and they don't remarry. The author set the novel to take place in a fantasy version of the Tang Dynasty, where it was fine for women to remarry. Had Guo Xiu been honest with them or just done nothing so they know people are disappearing, they could have chosen to move away from this dangerous place.

Maybe, some villagers would choose to throw their lives away to look for their loved ones, but that's their choice.

---

Your recap and the timing of your screenshots for their expressions are so good, especially Mu Yao and Mu Sheng's conversations at the beginning of the episode!