#buying a plot of land

[front-facing-pokemon]

[gothamcitycentral]

I find the parallels between Vaggie/Charlie and Carmilla/Zestial to be really neat.

Vaggie and Carmilla both leapt to the defense of Charlie and Zestial. Both bite their tongue at danger and disrespect directed towards themselves, but when who they care about is the one being threatened, they react with no hesitation or composure to defend them.

In conjunction, Charlie and Zestial are both more powerful than Vaggie and Carmilla (even if this is more strongly implied in Zestial’s case). Yet they seem so much more hesitant to act on this power. Charlie explicitly hates using her royal status or fighting people, while Zestial just endures Velvette’s insults and questioning, only making small verbal defenses of his position. Not to mention how they’re both much older than Vaggie and Carmilla. Charlie is a slow aging immortal and Zestial is the oldest living Overlord and is on the regular described as ancient.

Charlie and Zestial both see themselves as someone Vaggie and Carmilla should confide in. Charlie isn’t upset that Vaggie was Exorcist, rather that she never told her. While Zestial “implores [Carmilla] to share the load.” He’s worried about this weight she’s carrying by herself, and wants to support her. I imagine Charlie felt similarly, Vaggie has been carrying her secret in silence for years, and with Charlie dedicating her life to helping others, it must her to know someone she’s so close to has been hurting this long.

“Ain’t you supposed to protect this place?”

“I’ll keep you safe, and keep this secret.”

There’s also how their ‘protector role’ seems completely self assigned. I highly doubt Charlie ever wanted Vaggie to be her personal guard, and Zestial reacts in surprise at being included with who Carmilla is ‘keeping safe.’ If you take Zestial’s reaction (or lack their of) to Velevette, you could make the point they do this because Charlie and him are unlikely to defend themselves (or at the very least hesitate to do so). Which I think speaks to the intrinsic sense of duty Vaggie and Carmilla have.

[astoldbychae]

I'm working on something. . .but I got...distracted.. 🥴

BRB Papa's making a pit stop in Chestnut Ridge. . .

and he made a friend named Domino. 🙃

Ya'll can blame @kozykhaos @cinamun and @simsimulation for these random C.R. shenanigans. Oh, and that new stand still in cas mod that I forgot I had in game until I clicked on Melo and fell to my knees cause his big, fine ass was staring into my soul. . .😩

[leham-n-daavocado]

Just finished the third season of Bridgerton (it was an incredibly frustrating watch)...People have said that Penelope is named as such because of her nickname Pen and her being a writer... but has anyone thought of the reference to the Odyssey and Penelope being the wife of Odysseus? You know, she had to be loyal for 20 years while Odysseus gallivanted across the globe and was distracted/cheating on her Circe? I feel like it goes with the whole Polin narrative too. She's the one who had to wait for him to get a clue. And if you've read the Penguin version of the Odyssey, you know everyone is like omg! Odysseus, so amazing, the sacker of cities etc. Which parallels Colin's "glow up". Totally think it's more of a literary reference since the two of them are writers...

[streetkid-named-desire]

Okay @ghostoffuturespast and @merge-conflict tagged me to share 6 lines and I haven't worked on the main fic's next chapter but I've had this origin fic idea bouncing around in my head that's inspired by The Devil's Arithmetic, a book I loved as a child. V sleeps off some wine after Passover seder at the camp and gets transported back to the 1800s (I think I can't remember the exact dates I decided on in my research lmaoooo) where he's the husband of some great great great aunt and they just landed in Mexico and are going to join his great great great whatever grandma on his maternal side at their budding tequila still and farm (his dad took his mother's family name)

Rules: Share the last six lines of any of your WIPs.

I tag uuuhhhhhhhhh @olath124 and @wounded--machine and @ouroboros-hideout

V spoke, not his own words. His voice was deeper with a harsher gravel. He felt a mustache tickle his lips too. "Julie is excellent at math and will handle the books. If anyone will be a maid, it will be me! I will also work the agave fields. This is not charity." "See, mamá? We got it all figured out," Julissa wrapped her arm around V's and they walked to the carriage with Valeria.

I'm gonna post the whole WIP under the cut because it's fun :3

V looked up and down the long picnic table. Three nearly empty plates of brisket were placed between every 10 people, five on either side. Bea was tearing into her fourth helping of the real beef brisket she'd made for their table. "I think this is the first Passover seder I attended in 20 years," V said and placed his hand on her thigh.

Bea swallowed without chewing, daintily dabbed at her mouth and took a sip of wine before speaking. "That would make you…" she trailed off trying to do the math in her head.

"Twelve, yeah. Last one before my parents died," V gulped down the last of his wine. The glowing sunset dazzled through the bottom of the glass and he suddenly felt very woozy. He set the glass down and placed two hands flat on the table to steady himself. "I'm feeling a little iffy. Gonna go lay down in the tent."

Bea started to get up but he placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll be fine. I think not having real live beef in a while plus all that wine is making my stomach riot."

Bea furrowed her brow in concern but nodded, "Holler if you need me." He kissed her on her cheek before standing and walking to their tent, only a few feet away.

V kicked off his shoes and untucked his dress shirt. It wasn't a suit dress shirt, it was a long sleeve black cowboy shirt with gold accents that Bea embroidered herself. He rolled up the sleeves and unbuttoned the top three buttons before falling into the cot. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, willing his stomach to relax.

"¡Oye! Vincente, levantarse," a woman's voice hissed in his ear.

V opened his eyes and searched for the source of the voice. He wasn't in a tent. He was in the hold of a ship with twenty other people. It was musty and smelled like human waste and damp carcasses. The woman nudged his shoulder and whispered again, "Come on, this is our stop." She stood up and handed a canvas satchel to him. The woman looked like his mother, but younger, much younger. She was 20, at most.

V found himself nodding and standing up. He took her hand and they quietly and carefully stepped over the other sleeping—and dead—bodies to the hatch to the deck. When they climbed out, the cool night air was fresh and sweet. He inhaled deeply, clearing his sinuses of the hold.

A sailor nodded in greeting at them and helped them find the plank down to the shore. "Where are we?" V asked.

"Tampico," the woman said.

"¡Julissa!" a voice cried out. The woman next to him dropped her things and ran.

"¡Mamá! ¡Mamá!" Julissa sobbed. V picked up what she dropped and followed.

When their embrace ended, Julissa wiped the tears off her face. She straightened her skirt and stood tall. "Mamá, este es mi marido," she said and gestured towards V. "Vincente, este es mi mamá, Valeria."

On autopilot, V took the woman's hand and bowed. He kissed the thin, aged skin on top of her hand and Valeria cooed while Julissa giggled. "Señora Guerra, mucho gusto usted."

V's mind whirled. This wasn't a BD. This was a dream. But it felt so real and was so consistent. And where was Johnny? He usually popped up in his dreams.

"Come, it's a six hour ride to the hacienda. Then, tomorrow, we will discuss your…plans," Valeria.

"Mamá, I talked about this in my letter. León says the tequila business is taking off! He's still using the recipe your grandfather created when he was a vintner," Julissa said.

Then it clicked for V. The Guerras. The Guerra tequila.

"It's just risky. It was already risky being with child and on that boat! Now you want to travel to the opposite side of the country? And for what? To be a maid?" Valeria clucked in disapproval.

V spoke, not his own words. His voice was deeper with a harsher gravel. He felt a mustache tickle his lips too. "Julie is excellent at math and will handle the books. If anyone will be a maid, it will be me! I will also work the agave fields. This is not charity."

"See, mamá? We got it all figured out," Julissa wrapped her arm around V's and they walked to the carriage with Valeria.

[spengie]

Genuine question. I'm a single mom with two young boys, a sole small business owner, and a homeowner. I have massive student debt, healthcare is always expensive, and I underpay myself so I can pay more money and benefits to my employees. I have a second job to try to make up the difference.

Do I stay and fight, or do I run? I'm terrified that my entire means to support my family and my ability to continue to support my family and my employees and their families is going to be taken from me.

I understand the benefit of showing my kids how to stay and fight. But I also desperately want them to not have to fight for basic human rights. I don't want them to be where I am, massively in debt, struggling to pay for basic necessities, working 60-80 hours a week to keep my dream alive. To keep my community alive. To keep my kids alive.

My personal instinct is to stay and fight. My mom instinct is to protect my boys and flee.

They are at war. I am at war, with myself.

[weirdbabs]

do you think that the guerra household has money now? i dont mean like rich kind of money but enough to be comfortable? to own beachfront property, right off the shore of a popular tourist town (and probably vacation destination) is expensive, even if her grandfather owned it and its been passed down. would the rewritten narrative be that fransisco and his wife decided to splurge on a plot of land on the beach or perhaphs an old lighthouse and he built the house himself? do they have people make offers on the house to the tune of millions that they keep turning down?

[notbecauseofvictories]

In the Chicagoland area, there's a guy whose entire thing is foraging---actually finding plants in the wild, and then turning around and selling them to chefs and other interested parties. I know this guy exists, because his local tour popped up in my weekly "are you bored in Chicago? here are all the things to do so as not to be bored!" search, and I fell down a rabbit hole of this dude and how he found his way to this incredibly weird job.

Anyway, I took the guy's tour today and although I remember not a single name of a single plant (I am bad with names) I had an amazingly good time wandering around Chicago's lakefront and listening to him talk.

[the-bot-marg0t]

...

[lanfykins]

Random ad: "What would you do if you won $1 million?"

Me: Finally! I can buy the coconut of my dreams!

[front-facing-pokemon]

[dentist-brainsurgeon]

My aunt was telling me they were coming out with a Futurama Movie and wanted to show me the trailer and y'all....

It was AI Ryan Reynolds but with bright orange hair and freaky ass AI Leela. She keeps watching these ai videos and keeps believing they're real until I tell her otherwise

[emeraldbabygirl]

I hate it here. Not like tumblr but ya’know. I miss when I was a kid and only thought about how long I had to play with my toys because I was carefree and not of age yet to worry about adult stuff. I want time to just stop. I want it to stop I’m tired of everything I want off this ride and the only way I know how to make it all stop is forbidden. I just want to stay in bed forever and pretend I’m a kid playing with my toys again without a care in the world because I am a kid.

[outerspace-iiinnerspace]

lupin iii special where some swindler is impersonating lupin and selling people guarantees that he won't rob them. lupin discovers this when he robs one of the suckers and is pleasantly surprised/confused by the lack of security, then is unpleasantly surprised when he turns on the tv the next morning and the big story is how lupin iii has no honor, he's a cheat, he breaks his promises, etc etc. for the purpose of this premise, this is a lupin who cares about that and he is incensed. someone is slandering his good name! he has to track down this no-good-impersonator and reveal them to the world so everyone will know he's a trustworthy thief. the special ends with a montage of him robbing everyone who bought an anti-thievery guarantee from the swindler guy.

[rivrsin]

.

[queerlycarter]

biggest thing i'm excited about with this carpentry apprenticeship program is that it will give me the skills to build my own barn in like 10+ years when i can start the mustang rescue (which will also be a boarding facility bc i gotta make money somehow) i want to do

esp because it will make buying land for it way easier bc i won't have to find somewhere that already has a barn that at least partially suits my needs*

i could buy a plot of land with suitable fields and a house and do my own fencing and build my own barn and implement whatever barn design elements i want

and after my apprenticeship if i also do a contractor program i won't need to hire a contractor, i'll be my own contractor.

the apprenticeship classes dont start until august and i cant wait. this is the first time since i graduated high school that i feel excited and hopeful about my future and it feels really really good

*you need a pretty specific setup for mustangs bc a lot of times when you first get them, especially fresh from the holding pen (which isn't going to be my main focus. my main focus will be rehabilitating failed adoptions**) they are terrified of everything and at the very least, you need basically. a chute to funnel them from the trailer to the pen you'll be keeping them in until they are ready for a stall. you need that pen to withstand a thousand pound panicking animal throwing themselves around. you need a pen they cant escape from or injure themselves too badly. ideally this is backed up to the barn or a shelter where they can enter a stall of their own will.

and ideally i would have multiple of these (a portable trailer chute would be SO sexy too...) and i would also like a large covered ring in which to work with them and hold classes

and obviously a hay barn bc keeping all your hay in the barn is how you get your whole facility burned down

**failed adoptions with mustangs are basically when someone adopts a mustang but they are "too wild" (read: traumatized/flighty) and need a lot of specialized work to get to a point where they're not freaking out about everything constantly all the time