#i have arachnophobia and looking at these pictures is a huge thing for me

[beanghostprincess]

"I can fix him" I can listen to him info-dumping about insects and arachnids for hours even though they terrify me to death and I'd start crying if he showed me one of the tiny bastards he has in his terrarium

[nintickleswitch]

Strung in Her Web

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Characters: Annabelle Cane, Statement Giver OC

Word Count: 1965

Content Warnings: CNC tickling, bondage, arachnophobia (no spiders directly involved, but they are mentioned and Annabelle has spider-like features), implied NSFW

Summary: Statement of Marjorie Winters, regarding a... A really weird first date. F/F, monster bondage + tickling. enjoy :)

Statement of Marjorie Winters, regarding a... A really weird first date. Let's just call it that. Statement given July 21st, 2014. Audio recording by Marjorie Winters, per my request. Statement begins.

Look, I'm sorry. I know this isn't how you usually do things. But... When I got an ad for your Institute last night, I knew I had to tell my story. I'm not really articulate in writing, though, and I don't think I could tell this to another person with a straight face. So I'll just do the tape myself. Hopefully I've done all the formatting correctly. Anyways, I suppose I should begin.

I'm a database administrator. It's not exactly a glamorous career, but it lets me live in London without going bankrupt so I suppose I'm happy with it. You've got to understand though, it's an incredibly demanding job. You have to stay on top of everything to make sure it's running smoothly 24/7, which means weird schedules and constantly scrambling to fix outages. At least I get the choice of working from home most days, which gives me room to at least half enjoy my hobbies.

On the flip side, it means I don't really get out much to meet new people. I've always been introverted, so making the effort to trek to a bar or club has never been worth it for me. IT also happens to be a boys' club for the most part, and the couple of fellow trans girls that I do know live overseas, which is a problem when you prefer women. So you can understand with the pressures of having to keep everything under control and my lonely lifestyle, I needed something to cut loose for once.

I never really trusted dating apps, but it wasn't like I had much choice. It was that or go out and try to mingle in person. I ended up creating a pretty decent profile, with a few cute pictures of myself, my job and a list of my hobbies. I actually managed to get quite a few hits - some from male chasers, which I mean, that does happen, but most from women who seemed to be genuinely interested in me.

I didn't swipe right on most of them even then, as I was somewhat picky about people in general, but there was one woman who caught my eye. Her stark white hair complemented her beautiful dark eyes and eccentric outfit so perfectly, along with that elegant spiderweb dyed into her undercut. I was almost magnetized to her from the start. So I swiped right, and it turns out she'd already matched me. I was giddy from excitement, my hands almost shaking when I dropped her a line. My flirting was... Beyond awkward, let's say, but she took it in stride and seemed to find it rather charming. In the end, she dropped the location of a cafe and invited me to meet her there around mid-afternoon. Of course, I accepted.

You know, it's odd. I don't seem to remember learning that much about her. I know her name was Annabelle Cane. She was just as gorgeous in person as she was online, wearing a beautiful vintage tweed suit with a maroon shirt underneath. It turned out we both liked black and white movies and thrift shopping. She said she was a huge fashion enthusiast, being really fond of needlecraft and weaving in particular. She liked a bunch of cool bands I never heard of, and eagerly listened to me ramble on about my job and my life, never once taking those piercing dark eyes off me, like she was studying my every move to see what she should do next.

When she brought up that she played piano, I decided to be a little bolder than I was. I took her hand, and said I figured - she had the most elegant hands. At this, she broke into a wide smile. For a moment, I saw something strange behind the corners of her mouth - like something *retracted*. But I blinked, and it was gone. She stood up, and said her flat was just a 10 minute walk away from here if I wanted to see just how skilled they were. I couldn't believe my luck. So obviously I followed her, up to a modest little flat decorated in dark wine, purple and green hues, styled effortlessly just like the rest of her was.

She poured me a glass of red, and told me not to be so nervous. That she was going to take care of me. Now, she was 5 years younger than me, and a couple of inches shorter, but the way she spoke made me feel like I was down on my knees for her already. I hastily downed the glass, and before I knew it, I was in her bedroom. She pushed me down onto the bed, kissing me with a hunger I hadn't experienced in years. Her deft hands made quick work of my outer layers, leaving me just in my camisole and skirt, stroking and pinching me in ways that had me sighing desperately for her before anything had even happened.

Eventually, she pulled away with a wicked grin, and asked me if I wanted to do something a little more special. Before I could ask what she meant, she grabbed several lengths of silk rope from a nearby drawer. I'd written that I had a fair amount of experience with kink in my profile from my college days, and I was always down to experiment, so I hastily nodded. I lay down on the bed prone, with my arms raised above my head, waiting for her patiently and eagerly.

She started with my body, her hands working quickly to create an intricate pattern that I only recognized as a web when she was finished. It was as mesmerizing as it was complex, and the tightness of it underneath my chest, around my hips and my thighs made me ache for her touch even more. Her work continued with my arms and legs, securing them to each of the four corners of the bed. I could hardly move by the time she was done. My heart pounded in my throat like a caged bird battering itself against the gilded wire as she told me to close my eyes, whispering the safeword in my ear before leaving imprints of her teeth in the cartilage.

The stroking started off slow, sensual. By that time I gathered she liked being in control, and I relished in it. I could tell she was having fun by her pleased little hums whenever I squirmed too much, digging her nails in slightly more wherever I was particularly sensitive. She pulled light giggles and soft, delighted moans out of me, mapping out every inch of my body with her hands. Even when she intensified the pace, making me buck and squirm and laugh properly with her clever touches, I couldn't help but melt into her touch. Her nails caressed my chest, up along my inner arms, circling my stomach and the grooves of my hips, dancing along my inner thighs... I was in heaven.

In fact, I was so caught up in how good it felt to let go that I didn't even notice that something was definitely amiss. I mean, I did notice, but not consciously. Trying to cut through all of those mixed nerve signals was almost impossible in my state. It didn't click for me until I felt a fourth hand tracing the curves of my neck until I realized what the problem was. My eyes snapped open, expecting to see a second person she'd brought along without warning me. But that wasn't what I saw.

Kneeling on the bed in front of me was Annabelle Cane. It wasn't the woman I saw before, though. Her eyes... Oh god, you don't understand. She had so many eyes. Protruding from her lips were a set of vicious looking mouthparts, clicking and chittering with excitement. And where I once saw two perfectly normal arms, she had four more, their languid movements unnatural. Inhuman.

Believe me, I tried to scream, with all my might I tried. But the moment I did, it turned into cacophonous laughter when every one of those six, swaying arms descended on my prone body. And I realized I never knew what true helplessness felt like until that moment.

One set plunged its thumbs into the pockets of my hips, kneading there mercilessly. Another raked its neatly manicured fingers from my ribs to my underarms, scraping those hollows with what felt more like stiff bristles than nails. I was almost reminded of the bristles on a tarantula's leg. One of my exes was a real exotics nut, and he'd often try to convince me how cute and fuzzy they were, holding his prized pets up to me with a wide grin. But all I could see were those beady little eyes, watching me like they were plotting my every move - the same eyes that were now staring down at me with utter glee.

The last set wrapped around my knees, squeezing the caps and skittering its fingers along the underside. Occasionally, they roamed to my tight calves, the tender underside of my thighs. And all I could do was laugh. Do you understand? I couldn't - I couldn't move an inch. If this was normal bondage, I would have at least been able to squirm - she certainly gave me plenty of room to, but I couldn't. It was like I was hypnotized under some horrible spell, like a fly caught in her web, forced to endure the barrage of unbearable tickling torture.

So I laughed. And I wept. Once I got over the shock of it, I even remembered that she'd given me a safe word. But I didn't say it. Because I think the worst part of it was, I didn't really hate it. I mean, yes, I was begging for mercy, begging to do anything for it to stop, and I was petrified with fear like I'd never been in my life. But I just... I couldn't help myself, I guess. The rush that came with losing all that control, terrifying as it may have been. And she was gorgeous, and such a skilled domme...

When it finally, mercifully ended after what felt like forever, I was a wreck. My hair was plastered against my forehead, I was sweating like crazy. My body couldn't stop... Trembling. That was all the movement she allowed. All she did, leaning in close with those clicking mandibles and those dark, beady eyes sprouting from her forehead and her cheeks, was whisper a single word to me in a low, husky voice:

And I answered.

"Safeword?"

"Chelicerae."

"Good girl."

She leaned in for a kiss, and it was... God. Intoxicating would be the best word for it. At some point, she bit my lip, and I started to feel... Fuzzy. Sensitive, helpless. When she finally drew back, that was when I saw what she really was. Each of her arms a chitinous, segmented leg with those bristly little hairs all over that scratched and tickled like cruel little brushes. But it didn't matter at that point. I was all hers.

Statement ends. 

I'll spare you the rest of the details. For my sake, and for yours. I think you know what happens next, and this statement is... Hardly appropriate for your archives at this point, I think. But I had to get it out there. Had to save whatever poor soul runs into her next. She's scheduled a second date with me at some contemporary art exhibit. I think I'm going to go. After all... I just can't help myself.

[spitzyyyy]

self indulgent rant under the cut

TL;DR: people who put phobia causing images in the thumbnails of videos without warning that aren’t specifically educational videos are assholes, and they should fuck off. this goes for any phobia: trypophobia, arachnophobia, etc. i’m fine with nature channels doing this, since. i know what i’m getting when i subscribe to one. but for non nature channels it’s a bitch move.

as a severe arachnophobe: content creators who put spiders as the focus in the thumbnails of their videos can go fuck themselves /gen. like. they don’t have to be in the FUCKING THUMBNAIL unless you are a channel that does that shit regularly. i don’t want to be on my phone, checking my youtube dashboard, and get hit with a close up of a black recluse!! i understand 100% if you’re a nature channel and that is your job, but if it isn’t then like. idk don’t fucking do that??? i’ve gotten into the habit of avoiding videos about bugs because the odds of there being a picture of a spider somewhere in there without warning is really high! when someone says “tw: bugs” i think BUGS, not spiders or scorpions!! fuck you if you call spiders bugs in the first place: THEYRE NOT. spiders aren’t bugs, they’re arachnids! there’s a distinction. and if you’re arachnophobic, there’s a huge difference between being afraid of spiders and being afraid of other insects!! i fucking love insects but i can’t look them up without having to worry if i’m going to have a breakdown because of images of spiders being mixed in! putting a spider in the thumbnail is rude as hell, especially if you don’t usually make videos that cover spiders/bugs—your audience has no warning! and not putting an arachnophobia warning in the video or description is also bad! sifting through comments to see if there’s any mentions of spiders is NOT easy either: it’s so EASY to miss any mentions that if i’m worried that i’ll be hit with a picture of a spider then i’ll not watch the video—even when the stuff genuinely interests me! and that doesn’t even get me started on videos that drop images of spiders with no prompting! i’m trying to watch a TED talk about that astronaut that went blind in space, and he drops a picture of a brown recluse with no prompting or warning!!

spiders genuinely make me feel icky when i see them: we get them on the door in the summer, and i will genuinely wait for someone else to come and open the door rather than get anywhere near a spider. i don’t like being in the same fucking room as them! there’s a reason i have them blacklisted and why i’ll ask someone else to look something up if im worried that there might be spiders in the results! scorpions don’t bother me—i think they’re badass—it is literally just spiders.

i’m. very opinionated about this. as someone with a genuine fear which makes me incapable of enjoying things, fuck people who put pictures of spiders in the thumbnails of their videos and don’t properly warn about it. those people are fucking assholes.

i’ll say this again: nature channels which focus specifically on nature and informational videos about that are different! you EXPECT that to come from them, since that’s they’re job!! i wouldn’t get mad at casual geographic for putting spiders in a video that he dedicated to bugs: if i watch that, i sign up for it. that’s on me. or if i watch a yt short about why you shouldn’t eat bananas with white spots on the peel (it could be a sign of mold or spider infestation, neither of which you want to eat) then i signed up for it!! if i watch a kurzgesagt video about the ant kingdom and warrior ants that will beat the shit out of everything (including tarantulas) then i expect that i might get hit with an animated spider!! in those cases, my panic response is under control, because i ANTICIPATED that i would be dealing with it! but if daily dose of internet puts spiders in the thumbnail without warning, then what the fuck. i don’t expect that! it triggers my panic response near instantly (which is to instinctually throw the thing with the spider on it away and to curl up into a ball) and i become WAY too self conscious!! i literally go into a fight or flight response with spiders—it’s flight. nature channels: i expect! non nature channels: i do not expect and it freaks me out. there’s a difference between me watching videos with bugs in them and being aware of the risk vs me watching a gaming video and being shown a spider.

i know people genuinely don’t mean harm when they do this, but it’s not THAT hard to not have spiders in the thumbnail. it’s not that hard to put a “cw: spiders” or “tw: arachnophobia” at the beginning of your video OR in the description! if you can warn about blood or death, then you can warn about spiders, as it’s one of the most common phobias!

[bloody-bee-tea]

BeeTober 2020 Day 27

Rice - Fright

Day 27 of BeeTober brings some arachnophobia for poor Jiang Cheng, but luckily he has the best neighbours because NMJ is simply the best da-ge to everyone and NHS knows exactly how JC feels.

When Jiang Cheng’s rice cooker goes out with a bang—or rather a very small twitch—Jiang Cheng takes a moment to simply stare at his ceiling.

Of course the rice cooker would decide to give out today, when Jiang Cheng is alone at home and no one is bound to come over either.

And that means, he has to go into the basement on his own.

Jiang Cheng knows that there’s a new rice cooker just waiting for him—Jiang Yanli has prophesised that his would die on him sooner or later and she wanted him to be prepared—but what’s also waiting for him down there are spiders.

Lots and lots of spiders.

The last time Jiang Cheng went into the basement he couldn’t finish repotting his plants because a rather huge spider came crawling out of the depth of hell, giving Jiang Cheng the fright of his life, and he had fled his own cellar without a second thought, abandoning his plants in the process as well.

In the end Wei Wuxian had repotted his plants, but he had made quite the mess of it, as he very willingly admitted, and Jiang Cheng still did not muster up the courage to clean up after him.

Now he has two reasons to go into the basement—three, he realizes as he eyes the empty cartons he’s been collecting, always putting it off to bring them down into the basement—so at least it would be worth it, and Jiang Cheng retrieves his hand-held vacuum cleaner. He just hopes that Jiang Yanli did not bury the rice cooker under boxes of other stuff, because Jiang Cheng is not going to overhaul his whole basement in search for it.

The chance to encounter a spider is way too high after all, and he wants to come out of this as unscathed as he can.

Jiang Cheng takes a few deep breaths to steel himself before he even leaves his own apartment, and of course he immediately runs into Nie Huaisang.

“What are you doing?” he wants to know and Jiang Cheng looks down at himself.

He’s wearing a hooded sweater, hood already pulled up, so that nothing can touch his hair, and he wears the thickest boots he owns, vacuum cleaner in one hand and balancing boxes on the other.

Jiang Cheng is aware that he’s going overboard, but there are spiders in the basement. He thinks he can be excused, even though he’s certain he makes quite the picture.

“I have to get a new rice cooker,” Jiang Cheng says and Nie Huaisang frowns.

“Like this? I’m not sure they will let you into a shop like this.”

“Oh no, I’m going into the basement,” Jiang Cheng clarifies, though he doubts that makes it better. “I have a second one, because Yanli is a worrywart,” he explains and Nie Huaisang nods, because clearly that makes a lot more sense.

“Well, I hope you survive then,” Nie Huaisang says and Jiang Cheng sees him shudder.

Nie Huaisang hates spiders just as much as Jiang Cheng does, and he always sends Nie Mingjue into the basement, because Nie Mingjue has never encountered anything that frightened him.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng grits out and then steels himself again.

He’s really damn hungry and he will get that stupid rice cooker.

Jiang Cheng hesitates in front of the stairs that lead down into the basement but he knows that he has to do it eventually. He will not simply turn back and admit defeat, especially not with how hungry he is.

So he makes his way down the stairs, deliberately keeping his gaze on the stairs instead of looking around, because he does not want to see any spiders before he even enters his own cellar.

When he reaches the door to his cellar, he puts the empty boxes down to get out his keys and then he’s in the cellar.

He freezes in the door, because when Wei Wuxian said he made a bit of a mess, he did not mention that half the plant earth is on the ground instead of inside of the bag where it should be.

“Fuck me,” Jiang Cheng groans because it looks like this won’t be a quick in-and-out like he hoped. “I’m going to kill him,” Jiang Cheng decides, but then he steps into the cellar.

He still keeps his eyes on the ground, surveying the mess there, as he ponders the best course of action.

It’s probably smarter to vacuum first before he moves all the stuff on the shelves, because he’s bound to disturb a lot more spiders there.

Mind made up, Jiang Cheng puts the boxes down and gets ready with the vacuum cleaner.

Everything is fine, at least for like two minutes, before Jiang Cheng realizes that not all black spots on the ground is dirt. And he realizes that because one of the black spots starts to move towards him.

And it’s fast.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh,” Jiang Cheng yells, stumbling backwards and pointing the vacuum cleaner at the spider.

He manages to suck it up with the vacuum, but Jiang Cheng curses the design of his vacuum because the container is see-through and Jiang Cheng can tell very well that the spider did not die.

Jiang Cheng drops the vacuum in his shock and stumbles back, right into the shelve behind him. A few boxes tumble out and hit Jiang Cheng, but he barely notices it, his eyes glued to the vacuum, his heart racing in his chest, and he feels a bit faint.

The spider crawls around in the container and Jiang Cheng knows he can never pick it up again, because who knows when the spider will find a way out of there.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters again and again, unsure what he should do now.

He’s trembling slightly, the tremors spreading out over his whole body, and he’s frozen to the spot.

Jiang Cheng is just as afraid of spiders as Wei Wuxian is of dogs—even though he did not go through any traumatic incident with them—and just like Wei Wuxian he never learned to overcome his fear.

It’s usually not a problem, since he avoids the basement as best as he can, but of course the one time he ventures down here it all goes to hell.

The spider is still crawling in the container, clearly looking for a way out and Jiang Cheng feels close to tears.

If he has to touch the vacuum cleaner to get rid of the spider, then he will—eventually—but he will scream inside his head the whole time and he’ll probably cry too, just for good measure.

Jiang Cheng is getting ready to take a step towards the vacuum cleaner when he hears a noise outside. He’s not thinking clearly, but the first thought that comes into his mind is that it’s another spider, before he realizes how stupid that is and he recognizes the sounds as someone coming down the stairs.

“Huaisang?” he calls out, because Nie Huaisang is at least home, Jiang Cheng knows that much.

He also knows that Nie Huaisang will be of absolutely no help to him, because they are both equally scared, but Jiang Cheng finds himself thinking that this whole horrible situation would be easier to deal with if someone else was there.

“Wanyin?” a voice calls back and that is most definitely not Nie Huaisang.

Jiang Cheng has half a mind diving behind the shelves just to hide from Nie Mingjue, but when he twitches his eyes fall on the spider in the vacuum cleaner again and he freezes in fear.

Diving behind the shelves would be a bad move as well, after all, because it’s bound to be infested with spiders.

“Fuck,” Jiang Cheng mutters yet again because he does not want Nie Mingjue to see him like this, but he also very much needs help.

“Mingjue, help,” Jiang Cheng gets out and it’s not long before Nie Mingjue steps into the cellar, surveying everything with a critical eye.

“What’s wrong?” he asks and Jiang Cheng has to bite back a sob, because Nie Mingjue’s voice is very steady and very calm and Jiang Cheng feels anything but.

“There’s—,” Jiang Cheng starts and it’s enough to make the tears flow. “There’s a spider in the vacuum,” he finally gets out, beyond mortified, but Nie Mingjue keeps calm.

“I see,” Nie Mingjue says, and steps even closer. “What did you need from down here?”

“Rice cooker,” Jiang Cheng presses out and jumps when the spider in the container suddenly moves quickly.

“Alright,” Nie Mingjue nods and pats Jiang Cheng’s head, before he makes a strange movement with the same hand. “I’ll get it for you.”

Nie Mingjue is not usually someone to pet someone’s head and just as that thought crosses his mind Jiang Cheng goes ice cold as the implication of what Nie Mingjue just did hit him, and he’s almost too scared to ask, but he needs to know.

“There was a spider on my head, right?” he asks, his voice very small and very shaky and Nie Mingjue nods reluctantly.

Disgust and fear roll in waves over Jiang Cheng and he has to get out of the basement right this second.

“I have to—I can’t—,” he stumbles over his words, but he can’t manage to form a complete sentence and in the end he simply runs away.

He almost falls a few times on his way up the stairs, and instead of running back into his own spider-free apartment he runs outside.

And the first thing he does there is to take off his sweater, because clearly after his stumble into the shelves it’s no longer free of spiders.

As soon as he gets it off he throws it onto the ground, not daring to look to closely if anything comes crawling out of it, because that’s a nightmare he doesn’t need on top of everything else that happened today.

Jiang Cheng takes a few steps back from the sweater and then simply stands in the cold, with nothing more than his shirt, and he almost prefers the shivers caused from the cold to those out of fear.

He slings his arms around his middle, trying to hide just how badly his hands shake, and then he takes a few deep breaths, though they hardly do anything to calm him down.

Jiang Cheng knows that he’ll think about this for days to come, and he already knows that he won’t get much sleep this night.

By the time there’s a sound behind him, he mostly stopped crying, but he still startles badly when Nie Mingjue comes out of the house, the vacuum cleaner in his hand.

“Turn around,” he gently instructs Jiang Cheng, who obeys him before he can catch a sight of the spider still trapped inside.

Normally Jiang Cheng would freak out even more now, because he can’t see the spider anymore, but he trusts Nie Mingjue to have this handled in a way that does the least harm to Jiang Cheng’s very frail mental health right now.

Jiang Cheng hears him working on the vacuum cleaner, presumably throwing the contents and the spider into the garbage bin, and then Nie Mingjue steps up next to him.

“It’s all dealt with,” Nie Mingjue reassures him. “I cleaned up, stacked the boxes again and got your rice cooker.”

Jiang Cheng is entirely beyond feeling embarrassed when a sob breaks free at that.

“Thank you,” he gets out and his heart races for entirely different reasons when Nie Mingjue smiles at him.

Jiang Cheng is in no way equipped to deal with this onslaught of emotions and he sways slightly on his feet.

“Anything else you need?” Nie Mingjue asks him, his voice still low and clearly concerned and it’s enough to make Jiang Cheng blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.

“A hug would be nice,” he says and Nie Mingjue is very quick to open his arms for him.

It’s not difficult at all to step forward and Jiang Cheng doubts there’s a better feeling than being embraced by Nie Mingjue. His smell is very comforting and his arms are secure and strong around him and for just a moment Jiang Cheng can forget this horrible, no good afternoon.

“Thank you,” Jiang Cheng says again and Nie Mingjue starts to stroke his hands up and down Jiang Cheng’s back, making him almost melt into the embrace.

“No problem,” Nie Mingjue says and his voice makes a very nice rumbling sound. “I’m quite used to dealing with something like this,” he goes on and Jiang Cheng feels a little less mortified by the whole ordeal when he remembers that he heard Nie Huaisang scream for Nie Mingjue more than once already.

“In fact, why don’t you join us for dinner tonight?” Nie Mingjue suddenly asks and cups the back of Jiang Cheng’s head when he wants to pull away.

It seems like the hug is not yet over.

“Huaisang doesn’t like being alone after there was an incident and I’m sure he’d be thrilled to have you over. You can even sleep at our place, since Wei Wuxian is not coming home today, right?”

Jiang Cheng goes hot all over when those kind words bring tears to his eyes again and he doesn’t trust his voice to hold out, so he simply nods.

“Alright,” Nie Mingjue says. “We’ll grab your things and then get started on dinner. You must be hungry.”

“Starved,” Jiang Cheng admits and this time when he tries to pull away, Nie Mingjue lets him. “My rice cooker died on me, that started this whole mess.”

“Then we’ll have to whip up something quickly,” Nie Mingjue tells him and then seems to hesitate. “Will you be alright if I hand you the vacuum?”

“You promise there’s no spider in there anymore?” Jiang Cheng asks, the first tendrils of fear already setting in again, but Nie Mingjue nods.

“I checked it over and cleaned it out personally, there’s nothing in there at all.”

He sounds completely sure, and Jiang Cheng has no reason not to trust him, so he takes one last deep breath and then holds out his hand.

“Okay.”

He still startles slightly when Nie Mingjue puts the vacuum in his hand, but it’s not as bad as it would have been if Jiang Cheng had to deal with it on his own.

Nie Mingjue picks the rice cooker and Jiang Cheng’s discarded sweater up and then he follows Jiang Cheng to his own apartment.

Jiang Cheng would feel coddled, but he’s actually really grateful that he doesn’t have to do this alone, because after a scare like this he sees spiders everywhere, even though he logically knows that it’s unlikely that there are spiders all over his apartment.

Still, he’s quick to gather his things and before he can so much as blink, they are inside Nie Mingjue’s apartment.

“Da-ge?” Nie Huaisang calls out. “What took you so long?”

“We have a guest tonight,” Nie Mingjue calls back and winks at Jiang Cheng. “There was an incident in the basement.”

“An inci—oh,” Nie Huaisang says when he comes out into the living room and his gaze falls on Jiang Cheng. “Fuck, one of those incidents, huh?”

Jiang Cheng is aware that he must still look like a wreck; he couldn’t bring himself to pick up his sweater, even though Nie Mingjue promised him he shook it out as well, and his eyes must still be red-rimmed from the tears earlier.

“One of those incidents,” Nie Mingjue agrees and shoos Nie Huaisang into the kitchen. “He’s going to take a shower, and he’ll room with you tonight.”

“Pushy,” Nie Huaisang says with a wrinkled nose at his brother, but before Jiang Cheng can offer to simply go back to his own apartment, Nie Huaisang already bounded over to him.

“Of course you’re rooming with me, tonight,” he tells Jiang Cheng. “Incidents are the worst and it’s not good to be alone afterwards.”

Jiang Cheng feels choked up all over again at his words and his eyes burn.

“Come on, a good shower will help and da-ge makes the best comfort food,” Nie Huaisang says as he drags Jiang Cheng over to the bathroom.

“Want me to check it with you?” Nie Huaisang asks, because clearly he understands that Jiang Cheng will see spiders everywhere right now, and Jiang Cheng can only nod.

They do a check of the bathroom—completely spider-free, much to Jiang Cheng’s relief—and then Nie Huaisang leaves him to shower.

Jiang Cheng still feels unsettled, and he still jumps at every dark spot he sees, but with the delicious smell wafting into the bathroom, and Nie Huaisang’s and Nie Mingjue’s voices filling the silence, he finds that it’s not as bad as it usually is.

Maybe this day won’t be a complete disaster after all.

Link to my ko-fi on the sidebar!

[sevlgi]

white knight

requested: yes

group: red velvet

pairing: irene x fem!reader

genre: fluff, mild angst

contents: college!au, scaredy cat!irene

warnings: swearing

synopsis: Irene isn’t looking to be saved by a white knight, but she can’t help falling for you when you rescue her. From a spider. In a college dorm.

a/n: i’m sorry for how long this took me 😂 I hope you enjoy!

word count: 3.8k

It’s not a super fun thing to be woken up by a blood-curdling scream at 4 in the morning.

The hallways and rooms of your dorm building are especially echoey, causing the scream to sound like it’s erupting right next to you. Considering that you’re not a heavy sleeper, it’s pretty damn terrifying.

“Shit,” you gasp, fumbling to get out of bed. Your dorm is pitch dark, as it has been for the past week or so while most people in your building have been gone for winter break. You thought you were the last one left, but clearly, that’s not true. “What the hell?”

The scream sounds again, louder and shriller this time, and you wince, stuffing your feet into shoes that you’re sure don’t match and grabbing the heaviest textbook you can find. Your campus is supposed to be pretty safe, but judging by the screams, there’s probably a serial killer on campus, and you’ll definitely die fighting them off.

It’s not hard to find the room of the screamer; it’s the only door ajar at the end of the hallway, bright light spilling out from inside. Honestly, it’s weird for a killer to keep the door open and the lights on, but your sleep-deprived brain doesn’t make much of it, and you kick the door open violently.

There’s an ugly cracking sound as the doorknob slams into the wall, but you’re focused on the fact that there’s definitely not a killer in the dorm. No, there’s only one person inside, a petite girl in a bathrobe and face mask, standing on top of her bed and screaming at the open door of the bathroom. “What- did you crack my wall?” she demands, staring at you.

“I- that doesn’t matter, what the fuck are you screaming at?”

She points a shaking hand at the bathroom, and you’re half-expecting to see a rabid dog or a dead body. Instead, it takes almost a full minute for you to find the spider on the tiled floor. “The fuck- you’re screaming about a spider?” you groan, already wishing you didn’t get out of bed for this.

The girl frowns and crosses her arms. “Well, yes. Spiders are scary. If you don’t mind, could you kill it? You did break my wall.”

You smash it with your foot, scraping it along the floor to leave a streak of spider guts. The girl’s still staring at her gross floor when you whirl around with your hands on your hips, about to give her a piece of your mind. “Why the hell? You gotta be more considerate, it’s 4 in the morning and you’re screaming your head off about a tiny-ass bug.”

“It’s not my fault I have arachnophobia,” she snaps back, and you bristle at the audacity. “I mean, I didn’t ask for some white-knight wannabe to burst in and ruin my wall.”

“Wh-” you sputter. Drawing yourself up to your full considerably unimpressive height, you spit out, “Well, fuck you. Next time there’s an actual serial killer, I’ll just leave you here to be smeared on the floor like that goddamn spider. Again, fuck you!”

“Wannabe,” she calls out behind you, muffled when you slam the door shut. You want to believe it’s a fever dream, but the reality of it is that you have a rude-ass neighbor with a horror movie scream, and you didn’t get enough sleep to survive class.

All a day in the life of a college student, right?

“Pleeeaaasseeee.”

You glare menacingly at Jisoo, who doesn’t even flinch. “No.”

“Come on,” your roommate pleads, tugging on your arm. She’s all too used to your stubbornness to give up on something she wants you to do now. “Please? I really want you to meet Jennie!”

“Come on, Jisoo,” you sigh, still typing away at the essay you started an hour too late. “You’re dating the most popular girl on campus, and you want me to come to dinner with the two of you?” At Jisoo’s nod, you roll your eyes and ignore her pout. “You’re kidding.”

The brunette groans; even her patience has a limit. “Jennie’s so sweet, she’ll love you! Besides, she’s bringing her roommate.”

“Should I care?”

“A really hot roommate,” Jisoo amends. “Absolutely your type. I’ve met her, she’s so gorgeous. Her name is Joohyun, and she’s a year above you, I think. She’s super pretty and super sweet and I’m pretty sure she’s super gay-”

Your hand, clamped over Jisoo’s mouth, cuts off the flow of unnecessary information. Honestly, even the mention of a pretty girl isn’t enough to get you to want to go to dinner with your roommate and her uber-popular girlfriend, but you know Jisoo will just reschedule if you don’t come and nag you until you agree. “Fine. I’ll come, but I won’t be happy about it.”

“Trust me, you’ll definitely be happy,” Jisoo squeals, pressing an exaggerated kiss to your forehead before leaving the room, probably to tell her girlfriend the news.

You don’t pay any attention to your easily excited best friend, simply continuing to type away. The mention of dinner with a pretty girl quickly slips away to the back of your mind, a vague throb in the background.

“I think I see them,” Jisoo tells you with a huge grin on her face. You’re sitting in a booth opposite her, and you’ve been ignoring your roommate’s hands tapping at the table for at least 20 minutes now.

“You said that 10 minutes ago,” you grumble, flipping through the menu. Honestly, one of the only things that got you to agree to the stupid dinner was the promise of food, and your mouth is practically watering at the pictures of ramen on the menu. “Are you sure it’s them?”

Your roommate quickly smooths her hair down, grabbing your face to check your makeup and ignoring your disgruntled noise. “Yes, I’m sure. Can you at least smile?”

Luckily, there’s no more time for Jisoo to fuss over you; you spot Jennie first, recognizing her by her cute gummy smile and expensive perfume. However, when your eyes travel to the girl behind Jennie, your jaw drops in time with hers.

To anyone else, it would seem like you’re simply shocked by how pretty the girl is, and that’s partially true. ‘Joohyun’, as you remember, is absolutely gorgeous, to the point where she seems unreal. Porcelain skin, glossy raven hair, and dark eyes widened in shock make her easily the prettiest girl you’ve ever seen.

However, you can’t help but see a face mask and bathrobe that no one else can see, and you can hear an ear-piercing scream rattling in your ears. Maybe Joohyun sees the oversized shirt you wore that night, a shoe in your hand that you used to smash a stupid spider.

Either way, you’re not letting Jisoo know about what you did.

Extending your hand with the fakest smile you can muster, you introduce yourself. “Hi, Joohyun, right? I’m Y/N.”

“Um, yeah. Hi.” After taking your hand, she slides into the booth next to you, although you’re sure she’s almost hanging off the edge with how much space is between the two of you. You’re the direct opposites of Jennie and Jisoo, who are practically glued together opposite you.

Jisoo’s oblivious, but she’s not oblivious enough to miss the tension between you, and Jennie has practically no tact. Her sharp eyes observe the icy stare Joohyun gives you and she asks, “Do you two know each other?”

“No,” Joohyun answers immediately, her cold expression melting into a sweet smile when she looks to her roommate. “She just looks like someone I met a few days ago. Remember the girl I told you about?”

“Yeah,” Jennie laughs, covering her smile with her hand. “Yeah, I remember. You still haven’t fixed that crack in our wall, you know.”

You pray that Jisoo doesn’t ask for details, but of course, she does. “What crack?” she smiles, eyes lighting up at the promise of a story. Really, Jisoo?

“Oh, you know how everyone was gone for winter break?” Joohyun smiles, tucking her hair behind her ear. It’s not fair how gorgeous she looks. “There was a spider in my bathroom, so obviously I screamed.”

“Are spiders that scary?” you can’t help yourself from blurting out. Jisoo raises an eyebrow at you. “I mean, it couldn’t have been too big.”

“Anyway,” Joohyun continues, fully ignoring you. You bristle at her dismissive attitude, but stay silent to hear whatever lies she’s spinning about you. “This girl busts into my dorm and throws the door open so hard that it makes a huge crack in the wall!”

“Damn,” Jisoo comments. You want to glare at her, but that’ll just be painfully obvious. “Who was she?”

The brunette beside you laughs, shaking her head. “I don’t know! But I fully intend to find her and make her pay for my wall. To be honest, she looked a lot like Y/N, about this tall, with this hair color too. Even her face looks similar!”

“That’s funny,” Jennie chimes in now. “You should try your best to find her then, if you’ve got Y/N as a reference. It’s gonna be expensive to fix up the wall. Do you think we’ll get in trouble with administration?”

Jisoo shakes her head, and you watch on helplessly as your roommate digs you into an even bigger hole. “You won’t if you fix it in time. Y/N can help you guys!”

“Really?” Two sets of eyes turn skeptically onto you. 

“I own a kit to fill in walls,” you blurt out, cursing internally. Honestly, you want to slap yourself. “Yeah, I can help you guys fill in the crack. It’ll look like nothing happened.”

Jennie offers you a gummy smile. “That’d be great! Would tomorrow work for you?”

All of a sudden, Joohyun’s eyes grow wide and she protests, “Neither of us will be home though, maybe we should wait until you have a free day?”

“Nonsense, you’ll be there. You don’t have class tomorrow, remember?” Jennie grins, flapping her hand and looking down at the menu. “You can stop by anytime, Y/N. Now, should we order? I’ll pay.”

As your roommate cooes about how considerate her girlfriend is, you studiously avoid Joohyun’s eyes. Honestly, you have no idea if you’ll survive tomorrow, not if you’re faced with a hot girl with an obvious grudge against you.

Fuck.

“Uh, would you mind opening the door a little more?”

Joohyun stares at you suspiciously through the tiny crack that she’s opened the door. You can’t help but notice how pretty she looks, hair up in a messy ponytail and dressed in a simple white shirt, but you school your expression into a frown to mirror hers. “Step away first.”

“What the fuck,” you sigh, shifting the spackling kit under your arm. “I’m not gonna slam the goddamn door again, just open it and let me in. Or do you want to explain to administration why you have a crack in your wall?”

“Because you’re an asshole,” she mumbles, opening the door just enough for you to squeeze through. “Who the hell barges into someone else’s dorm at 2 in the morning?”

“It was 4 in the morning,” you snap back, although there’s a twinge of guilt in your chest at the sight of the huge crack in the wall. The cracks aren’t wide, thank god, but there’s a lot of them. “And I barged in because I thought you were being murdered! Who the hell screams like that because of a tiny-ass spider?”

She hesitates at that, and you smirk, satisfied. Crossing her arms, Joohyun scowls, “Whatever. So, am I supposed to pay you for this or something? I don’t know how much I’d usually pay to get someone to do this for me, so don’t overcharge.”

You stare at her, at the brown eyes darting to look at anywhere but you. “What? Jesus, I’m not that much of an asshole. You don’t have to pay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the fuck?” you mumble, starting to open the kit you’ve set on the floor. “Did you think that little of me?”

Joohyun rolls her eyes, but you think you can see the tiniest bit of a smile tugging at her lip. “I mean, you did make that crack. It’s the least you can do.”

‘“Look, I feel bad about the crack, but you didn’t need to embarrass me in front of my roommate. You made it painfully obvious that the asshole you were talking about was me,” you frown, looking up at her.

She wordlessly places a cup of water by you, settling down in a chair a few feet away with a thoughtful twist to her brow. “Mm. Whatever, it got you to fix my wall for free.”

“Yeah, and I’m not doing it again. I’m keeping my promise that if you get murdered next time, I’m not coming to save you.”

“Sure you will,” Joohyun laughs, and you can’t help but stare at the way her eyes shine.

Suddenly, you’re not sure you will either.

The next time you see Joohyun is a few days later at 2 in the morning in the communal washing machine area.

“We’ve got to stop meeting at ass o’clock in the morning” is your greeting to her.

She looks tired, you note, although you’re sure you do too. There’s only 6 washing machines in a floor with a couple hundred students, so ass o’clock of the morning is usually when you come to steal two of the machines for you and Jisoo. Whenever Jisoo agrees to do the laundry, she miraculously finds an empty machine at a convenient time, but you’re nowhere near as lucky.

“Hey, Y/N,” Joohyun yawns, rubbing at her eyes. She’s carrying an empty hamper, probably for clothes she washed earlier. You wonder which one of the swirling machines is hers. “It seems that this is the only time of day you’re awake.”

To be honest, you don’t appreciate being teased for your choice of afternoon classes to preserve your sleep, and you tell Joohyun so. However, you do appreciate the small smile that cracks her usually impassive face. “Anyways, need help?”

“What?”

“Need. Help?” you say again, enunciating the words exaggeratedly and earning a halfhearted slap. She doesn’t respond, only opening two of the still machines. “Really, two machines? How many clothes do you have?”

“Some are Jennie’s,” Joohyun scowls, flipping a shirt more aggressively than strictly necessary. “I think some are Jisoo’s too.”

You snort, holding a pink shirt that you’re sure belongs to your roommate. “I better not find any underwear or something.”

“With how often Jisoo sleeps over, I wouldn’t be surprised,” the other girl sighs. “Seriously, how did you not meet Jennie before that dinner?”

“Apparently, Jisoo didn’t want me to get the wrong impression by hearing them fuck in the other room or something.”

“How considerate,” Joohyun says dryly, and you don’t manage to suppress your laugh. When you calm down, you realize that Joohyun’s staring at you, though she quickly averts her eyes. “No, I’m serious. I heard Jennie moan Jisoo’s name enough times before I met her that i didn’t even need to be introduced.”

You scrunch your nose, observing the neat way the other girl folds her laundry and copying. “Gross. I thought Jisoo would be the loud one.”

“No, she’s pretty loud too.”

“Oh, ew,” you protest. “I mean, that can be hot sometimes, but Jisoo probably sounds like a dying duck.”

“And you don’t?” Joohyun shoots back. Almost immediately, her pale cheeks color to a deep pink, even though you didn’t have remotely enough time to make an innuendo in your head. “Oh my god, that’s not what I meant, I don’t care what you sound like-”

“Shut up, I didn’t even think of that,” you snort, still folding laundry. “You’ve got a crazy dirty mind if you immediately connected those two things.”

Joohyun throws a shirt at your face and you yelp, catching it only to throw it back. Somehow, it breaks the tension and you both start laughing, folding laundry while exchanging jabs at your respective roommates.

Maybe she’s not as bad as you thought.

It becomes almost a tradition to meet at the laundry room at 2 in the morning on Fridays. The next time is accidental, but after that, you’re sure that Joohyun’s making changes to her schedule just to catch you doing your and your roommate’s laundry and joke with you.

You become sort-of-friends, although you rarely hang out outside of folding shirts together. Sometimes, when Jisoo and Jennie are being gross together, one of you will escape to the others’ dorm, but that’s about it.

What worries you is the not-so-friendly thoughts you begin to have about Joohyun. Sometimes, you can’t seem to stop staring at the girl’s lips, and you feel the itch to hold her hand. 

It’s weird.

Therefore, you’ve been forcing Jisoo to do the laundry for the last week and keeping out of your dorm to avoid seeing your sort-of-friend.

You’re only home when Jennie comes knocking because Jisoo makes you stay home while she goes out with friends. You really can’t fathom who’s at your door, so you yank it open.

“Um… hi?” Jennie offers, a sheepish smile on her face. “I brought dessert.” True to her word, her arms are laden with boxes upon boxes of sweets, all of them your favorites.

“Is this a bribe?” You wince at the words that come out, knowing that they sound accusing. “Sorry, just…”

Jennie shrugs, placing the boxes on a table. “I mean, you’re not wrong. I am bribing you.”

Shoving a pastry in your mouth, you cross your arms and try not to look smug. “What for? You’ve got me in a good mood, it’s in your favor to ask now.”

Your roommate’s girlfriend laughs, hesitantly taking one of the desserts when you offer them. “Well. Jisoo and I actually had a really nice date planned for Valentine’s Day, but we can’t go. You probably know Jisoo has a family emergency, right?”

You manage to nod sympathetically despite your cheeks being stuffed full of sweets. “I’m going with her, she’s so worried that I don’t trust her to fly across the country on her own. But we don’t want our date to go to waste.”

“Okay, but what does this have to do with me?”

Jennie shifts, looking slightly uncomfortable. “Right, so Joohyun’s willing to go on the date, but I don’t want her to do it all alone. Would you be willing to go with her?”

At your slight frown, she rambles, “It doesn’t have to be a date for you guys, it’s just a nice dinner! You know, it can just be a nice hangout between friends who definitely don’t have feelings for each other.”

“Do you know something?” There’s a slight jump in your pulse; there’s no way Jennie could know that you might have feelings for her roommate, but you’re nervous nonetheless. What if she’s told Joohyun?

She blushes, chewing lightly on her lower lip. “Of course not! So. Will you do it?”

It barely takes a moment of thinking for you to say, “Sure, I’ll go on a date with Joohyun.” You wince lightly at the blunt way you said it, clarifying, “A not-date. With my friend.”

“Good,” Jennie sighs, standing. She returns to her confident popular-girl image with a smile, handing you a little envelope with a time and date written on it. “Have fun.”

“I will,” you mumble, staring at the envelope.

What have you got to be nervous about? You’re just hanging out with your friend, who you definitely don’t have feelings for and who definitely doesn’t have feelings for you either.

Right?

You really don’t know why you spend almost an hour getting ready for your not-date when you usually wouldn’t care what you wore to hang out with friends.

It feels stupid to frown at your simple outfit while piles of clothes surround you. Just on time, you hear Joohyun’s knock, 3 quick raps as always. 

“Hi,” you manage to get out, sounding more breathless than you’d like. She looks perfect as always, but she looks just as flustered as you feel. “Um, let’s go?”

“Right, yeah,” Joohyun mutters, shaking her head and walking faster than she should. “My car’s this way.”

Both of you are uncharacteristically quiet on the way to the car and even more so when Joohyun starts driving. It’s awkward, and you’re sure it has something to do with the fact that you have feelings for her.

You can’t muster up the courage to say something, but you remain silent until the two of you order food. Suddenly, Joohyun groans out, “This is so awkward.”

“Right?” Glancing around you to make sure people aren’t staring, you slump a bit, shaking your head. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” She raises an eyebrow, sipping at the cup of wine she holds. “It’s not your fault, it’s just weird for us to be on a date when we’re just friends.”

As you frown, you can’t help but notice the slight blush on Joohyun’s cheekbones. “I mean, my feelings for you have got to make it weird, right?”

Immediately, Joohyun spits out the mouthful of unfortunately expensive wine, hacking and coughing as she stares at you. “Wh- feelings!?”

You can’t help the dark red flush rising to your face, definitely less flattering than Joohyun’s own. “Shut up, Jennie told me you knew.”

“I don’t,” she says, looking thoroughly convinced. “I was being awkward because I thought Jennie told you about my feelings.”

“Your feelings? What feelings?” You do your best not to be so loud when the other customers start looking your way, but you can’t help the shocked expression on your face.

Joohyun scowls now, staring anywhere but at you. “The same feelings as yours, idiot. Romantic ones, not-friends ones! Want-to-kiss-you feelings, want-to-go-on-dates-with-you feelings!”

“What…?” Realization dawns over you, your mouth forming a little ‘o’. “Jennie and Jisoo knew. They told each other about our feelings and set us up! I’ll bet they didn’t even have a dinner reservation!”

The girl opposite you groans, shaking her head. “Oh, this is so like them. They’re so meddling, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind once they get back!”

“Same.” You sit in silence for barely another moment before you blurt out, “So, you like me back?”

“Yes, you idiot,” Joohyun scowls, tossing her napkin at your head as if it can block the growing grin on your face. “Now shut up and enjoy the food.”

You do as you’re told, but dinner is definitely less awkward once the truth’s out. A weight is lifted from your shoulders now that your feelings are reciprocated, and you catch Joohyun smiling at you as if she feels the same way.

Maybe you don’t regret getting up to kill that spider after all. It’s still undecided.

[accioromione]

I love ron but there was a huge shift of his character from book 3 to 4, he went from literally not minding Harry's fame at all to always being jealous. It seemed so FORCED in book 4 onwards. Like jealous of the cup, jealous of him having gold, jealous of his robes, jealous of him being able to ask out any girl to the yule ball, jealous of Viktor I feel like because it was planned for him to leave she had to force that but it seemed unnatural tbh

I do think JKR pushed it with the Krum thing to kind of make it obvious Ron likes Hermione, otherwise people wouldn’t know right? She had to kind of make it over the top so like it's CLEAR that Ron likes her. If he’s okay with it, it just shows they’re good friends. I think that if this wasn't the case then Ron wouldn't have been as jealous, he’d be annoyed but get over it. As to the thing with Harry, Ron is pretty great overall with him. I think what you’re missing is how the books are told from Harry’s view and not Ron’s so you don’t really see how Ron’s experiencing things. 

So naturally, let me do an essay talking about Ron’s jealousy and where it stems from and why it’s justified. 

In the first book we see Ron and Harry becoming friends, people oggle at him, but Ron does not seem to mind. Becoming friends so early on, Ron ends up viewing Harry as a friend instead of the celebrity everyone else see’s him as. Ron assists Harry in taking down Voldemort in his first year, and he gets recognized for it by Dumbledore. Now people may not see this, but although he gets recognized- he is awarded 50 points. Now here is something to remember, at this moment- Slytherin is 160 points ahead of Gryffindor. Ron has just one them 50 points- yeah it’s great- but they need another 110 points to be tied.  Hermione gives them 50 extra points and starts crying. Then Harry is awarded 60. This makes them tied with Slytherin, and is obviously, 10 more points than Ron gone. So is once again, second best.  Ron’s moment is instantly overtook by Harry. Now Harry actually gets overtook by Neville winning 10 points, making Gryffindor win, Now in my opinion Ron doesn’t care at all because he immediately goes to cheer on neville, from book one to three I think Ron is generally okay with being overshadowed- but he just like anyone else would has a breaking point, which happens to be in Goblet of Fire . 

In the second book he goes  with Harry to the forbidden forrest, facing his arachnophobia, and goes to the chamber of secrets with him. It’s his broken wand that causes Lockhart to obliviate himself- otherwise the both of them would have been obliviated. And yes he has motives, it is his sister. But remember, Ginny has three other brothers in her school, does this mean they don’t care about her? Of course not. Ron just trusts Harry in a way that other characters can’t. Harry can talk to snakes and the whole school basically thinks he is the heir of Slytherin, so maybe falling Harry into a forbidden forrest or chamber of secrets isn’t something everyone is so keen on doing. But Ron trusts Harry and is willing to risk his life to be alongside him. Now is it ROn’s fault they get seperated in the chamber? No. Did Ron help as much as Harry, of course. Dumbledore gives them special services to the school for a reason. However a key thing to note is that Ginny does not see Ron. Who does she see? Harry. What is she going to tell her mum? Well, that Harry saved her. She is already a huge fan of him, so this already adds into her narrative. So what happens when Molly Weasley comes to see Ginny? She goes to hug Harry and thanks him right away, when Ron is right there. Ron says nothing, and he’s probably just happy that she’s safe. But what do you think happened when they went home that summer? Ginny gushed about Harry, she mentioned how he had saved her. Of course, she hadn’t seen Ron so it wasn’t her fault. But this yet again, shows Ron being overshadowed by Harry even though he himself contributed to her well being.

Come the third book, we see this quote

‘“Did you really blow up your aunt, Harry?” said Hermione in a very serious voice. “I didn’t mean to,” said Harry while Ron roared with laughter. “I just — lost control.” “It’s not funny, Ron,” said Hermione sharply. “Honestly, I’m amazed Harry wasn’t expelled.” “So am I,” admitted Harry. “Forget expelled, I thought I was go­ing to be arrested.” He looked at Ron. “Your dad doesn’t know why Fudge let me off, does he?” “Probably ’cause it’s you, isn’t it?” shrugged Ron, still chuckling. “Famous Harry Potter and all that. I’d hate to see what the Min­istry’d do to me if I blew up an aunt. Mind you, they’d have to dig me up first, because Mum would’ve killed me. Anyway, you can ask Dad yourself this evening. We’re staying at the Leaky Cauldron tonight too! So you can come to King’s Cross with us tomorrow! Hermione’s there as well!”

This shows that Ron is not ignorant to Harry’s favouritism, he is well aware that harry is more recognized than him. Obviously he is not mad, he’s laughing and thinks it’s great. But it shows how he is well aware that Harry has a treatment that he doesn't, this is important. This is where we get a glimpse of Ron’s perspective in the books. If you experience the events from Ron’s perspective, you’re going through all the adventures Harry goes through minus the same recognition. 

Now Goblet of Fire comes along, Harry is chosen to be in the tournament. Ron really wanted to sign up- but he was too young. Keep in mind he's mad at Harry because he thinks Harry found a way to sign up without him, not because he signed up. Ron deals with being pushed to the side all the time and genuinely cares about Harry. Ron just wants to be seen as his equal, he doesn’t care that Harry gets recognition. He literally just wants to be an equal counterpart. He apologizes when he see’s the danger Harry is in and puts that behind him. 

Order of the Phoenix Ron beats Harry in one thing- becoming a prefect, and Harry is instantly salty. Keep in mind that Ron has been dealing with this for FIVE YEARS, long term. This one little minuscule thing has Harry feeling some way. Instead of being happy, he APOLOGIZES to Harry. He says he was sure Harry was going to get it. This shows the regard he has for Harry, the difference is, unlike everything else, this is something they simply can’t both have, only one person can be prefect. Then we see Ron literally telling Harry all the things he’s faced and Harry rubbing it in Hermione and Ron’s faces that they haven’t experienced what he has. I personally thought this was so rude. Yes Harry stabbed the diary, yes Harry cast the patronus charm, and yes Harry saw Voldemort. But Ron was with him in the chamber, Ron drove the car, Ron kept Lockhart imprisoned, you think Ron can’t stab a book with a fang? Of course he can. Ron’s leg was literally broken in POA, and he still stood up on it to fight Sirius. Where have we ever seen a time where Ron can’t handle himself? Harry is different, he has this core connection with Voldemort, most of his victories are not due to him- take GOF for example. And what would Harry have done in POA without Hermione’s time turner? Nothing. GOF he wouldn’t have made it past the Dragon if Ron didn’t get Hagrid to tell him he was facing a dragon. Instead of Ron saying all of this he sits and takes it because he knows Harry has it worse than him in terms of Voldemort. He encourages Harry to start DA But also remember why the hell can Harry cast a patronus in the first place? Did he learn it himself? No! Lupin went out of his way to TEACH him, you think Ron wouldn't have been capable if Lupin had done the same with him? Of course, in DA we see Ron casting a patronus! He goes with Harry to the Ministry, he gets hit by a death eater, SO DOES Hermione Granger, why is Harry unaffected? Because the death eaters were TOLD not to harm Harry because VOLDEMORT wanted him! In the end Harry needs help, he needs the order and dumbledore. What comes out of all of this? Harry being recognized. That’s all. 

Come HBP , people don’t care about Luna or Neville, Hermione only mentions how Harry is so liked because people know how he was in the Ministry. Then the slug club comes, imagine a club like this in your school, that is BLATANT favouritism, Harry has all these fangirls, and then is a part of this club literally for his name. He’s also now quidditch captain- Ron isn’t even mad, he even jokes that Harry will be his captain if he lets him on the team again. Then he helps Harry yet again with the death eaters and all of that and then we go into DH. 

The jealousy comes into play with Harry and Hermione, which honestly Hermione had a part to play in this, Hermione does treat Harry differently from Ron, she’s like always more concerned about him and we know (well some of us) know it’s because he’s like her brother so it’s an overly protective sister kind of thing with him, but with Ron she likes him so she’s not as coddling, she treats him like she's his girlfriend which he fails to see. She also compliments Harry because it means nothing to her but she’s more reserved with complimenting Ron because she likes him (very teenager), she can say Harry’s handsome and not care but be too shy to say Ron is because of how she feels with regards to him.  Ron obviously misreads this. Anyways, at the end of the day,  him leaving isn’t down to jealousy, it’s down to frustration and Harrys’ lack of empathy for his family. When he comes back we see the Harry/Hermione thing which is just a bigger picture of giving insight to how Ron has seen everything. Ron is so good about it we never really heard his insecurities. But it’s sad how he see’s himself. So honestly, I feel for him and the man had a lot of patience. Hermione and Harry have no regards for his insecurities, Hermione mentions his insecurities ONCE in GOF and then goes onto say Harry should have been perfect, Harry is so brave for going in the ministry, I’m 100% Hermione thought she was giving Ron’s too many hints about her liking him so she didn’t feel like she had to compliment him. Like an ‘obviously I like you so I don’t need to tell how how much all the time,’ but you know Ron misreads it and he gives off that tough persona so Hermione fails to see how he is an actual puppy who hides behind humour. Tabloids are out about Harry and Hermione and how they’re so in love all of that, like he was justified for all his jealousies and he still stood and loved Harry none-the-less, so I think failure to recognize his experience takes from why he was jealous in the first place and that he’s not a bad person for being jealous given the situations he’s been put into. 

[scrawnytreedemon]

Why Giant Spiders in Media Often Fall Short, at least for me, And Some Ideas to Potentially Remedy That

Like most people, I have a level of visceral disgust and fear towards spiders. It’s gotten alot better during the last year or so and I can share a room with them without being bothered by it, but as soon as one of these eight-legged fucks falls onto my bed, I scream like a little bitch.

For both yours and my sake, there will be no pictures, however since imagination is a powerful thing I will be still tagging it with an Arachnophobia Trigger-Warning. I don’t want to cause anyone any distress.

This’ll be a long post, buckle in.

One issue I find is that when scaled up, they’re often treated like mammalian predators. They hiss, they spit, they thud along the ground as they chase you like a mutated wolf from the depths of Chernobyl with a case of rabies so severe it might as well be its own disease.

And at that point I ask: why a spider? 

And most people would answer any number of reasons-- that they’re creepy, they have an ungodly number of limbs with joints to match through which their movement is unnatural, they hide in cramped, tight and often dark spaces that they’ll skitter from as soon as their den is displaced-- or they hang their in the centre of their webs, watching, waiting, their silhouette on display for any unfortunate passerby to behold.

They seem uncanny, like they’re not an animal acting of of survival instincts, trying to make it through this unforgiving world like any other organism-- they feel like they have a mind-- and not in the humanising sense, more like they’re inherently malevolent, like they intent to hide amongst your belongings, in the garden shed, in the attic because they’re demons of the dark, boogeymen you search your room for before you turn the lights of and go to sleep.

Realising they’re just animals was a big factor in lessening my fear... and so when media treats them as so, it dampens the uncertainty, that unease that these creatures are even of this world. Sure, the scene can still be very tense, no doubt, but it often sacrifices that unpredictability that spiders have.

Think about how we interact with spiders, too. They often seem to appear out of nowhere-- you lift a cushion and BAM, there it is, with all its horrible legs skittering wildly as you make to swat it with a shoe. Or maybe you’re reading, your back against the back of your seat, relaxing after a long day, and maybe your eyes absentmindedly scan the room when HOLY SHIT THERE’S A SPIDER ON THE WALL NEXT TO ME--

When talking about giant spiders, having the character look up and suddenly spot a massive fucking spider either blended into a tree-trunk or stark against a stone wall could be a great way to capture that “OH SHIT-” moment. 

Oddly enough, a boss that managed to capture this feeling was Kuromori from Shadow of the Colossus. It’s a huge, lizard-esque construct found in this tall, narrow arena with many openings. It scales the wall and spews lasers at you-- granted, I am biased since for some reason enemies with fuck-you lasers scare the absolute shit out of me-- and your goal is to avoid these lasers while attempting to shoot each of its legs so it loses its grip and falls to the bottom, exposing its weakpoint. Let me tell you, watching that bossfight makes me squirm horrendously-- in a way, its a sort of reversal of the way we find and kill spiders, and it works wonderfully; and it doesn’t even have all the visual grotesqueness that’d no doubt make this even more potent.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that despite the number of eyes most spiders have absolutely shit eyesight, and as such mostly depend on touch and hearing, and their hunting habits reflect that-- often being ambush predators, or simply waiting around for food to come by. Of course, there’s alot of variety and there’s always an exception to the rule, but I feel like this is good to take into account if we’re talking about the garden-variety house spider lookalikes.

I also find that often in movies there’s far too much focus on the face-- is it unpleasant looking? Yes, but we’re no often looking straight into a spider’s face, now are we? There’s an instinctive unease at the silhouette of a spider-- our ancestors learned to fear it due to the risk of potentially dying from a venomous bite that could fester and rot. For me, its the legs that really get me, especially arched ones. It just looks so... wrong, hideous, a twisted abomination. Its even worse when the spiders have an almost fleshy look to them-- it makes me want to puke.

When it comes to tarantulas, while I don’t feel particularly grossed out by them as they’re big and soft, there is alot you can do with them. They’re ambush hunters, dwelling in cramped, silk-lined tunnels, waiting for unsuspecting prey to stumble across their threshold-- hell, some species like the aptly named Trapdoor Tarantula create a little hatch for said tunnel. They attack by suddenly leaping out, and dragging whatever poor creature they caught back in. 

Imagine some characters walking through the underbrush when suddenly one of them is grabbed by this massive fuck-you tarantula and gets dragged into its lair, leaving the other characters to follow them it, weapons bared, along the dark, narrow, sticky passage littered with the shells and bones of its previous meals, possibly coming across a shed exoskeleton or two-- I don’t like jumpscares, but by god that is some potentially neat jumpscare material.

Now, while I’ve been writing this I’ve been mostly referring to spiders about the size of a bear and upwards, but what about having spiders merely a couple feet long? Imagine feeling a tickle on your neck, and finding one of these fucks crawling up your back? Now THAT is fucking terrifying. Hell, you could still have spiders bigger than that maybe about four feet in leg-span clinging onto the walls of a dungeon, illuminated by your torchlight.

If you’re going for a sky-scraper tall, huge as all fuck kaiju of a spider that blots out the sun, I’d say go for a spindly, gnarly-legged dark spider that’ll stand out against the sky-- however, if you have an idea that works better or that you’d want to try, go for it!

However, I think I’ve gone on long enough. Sorry for the ramblings, this has been on my mind for months now, and I love breaking things down to see how they do or don’t work-- especially when it comes to biology and animal behaviour(???).

Ultimately, go with whatever works best for you! These are just the things that set me off, and I’d love to hear other ideas or expansions upon the ones I presented!

And of course, if giant arthropods are possible, why stop at spiders? 

[rose-wine-selfships]

So this is probably a selfish request but would you mind talking about your f/os for a bit? I just watched The Shining and I'm not any good at handling scary stuff, so would appreciate it if you could help me to take my mind off of it, please, since it's lovely hearing about other people's f/os and selfships. (@fancy-knight-selfships)

Oh no it’s no trouble at all @fancy-knight-selfships ! It’s not selfish if you ask of this. I got you my dear, and believe me I  used to be terrified of horror movies when I was a little girl. The movies, Arachnophobia, The Exorcist, and The Changeling are still at the top of my black list to never watch again. Lol. Anyways,  A complete F/O list will not be complete unless if I rant about my sushi boi.

Now how can I start out with this? Other than the fact I completely adore what an inspirational character he is. He’s inspired me to look at the positive side of life even if things come crashing down on me. My family has always had bad luck in life, and I am no exception on thinking pessimistically about things. But Atsushi in a sense is teaching me to be more positive and not to worry about the little things that get to me so much.

Given that I have autism, anxiety and ADD too, I could imagine him doing everything he can to calm me down if I get over stimulated or let me stim by touching his soft tiger form for comfort. There are times also at this point where I feel like I am giving up on humanity. I feel cynical and bitter about a lot of stuff humans have done so far. But I could picture Atsushi just holding my hand, talking to me directly, and telling me that there are such things as good people in this world. If Atsushi can reform people like Kyouka and Lucy, there are chances for other “bad” people to become good people too. But that’s one of the reasons why he’s such a huge comfort character for me. Given that we both had a rough past too, I can relate to him feeling alone and hurting. Hence why I always gravitated towards him because I want to kiss away his wounds and bandage his scars by comforting him my own way.

Atsushi still inspires me to see the good side of things and to see the good in myself, even if my insecurities and inner demons tell me not to.  hope you enjoyed this little rant about one of my F/Os. I might do some more ranting and gushing about more if I feel like it. Also,  I hope this calms you down a lot. I know horror movies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but horror movies nowadays don’t bother me. hope you have a good rest of your day! 🌹🍷✨

[breaddowrites]

Neighbor | Bucky Barnes x Reader

based off of: I know we’ve never talked before but there is a friggin huge spider in my apartment can you kill it for me

words: 1.5k

warnings: arachnophobia, panicky feelings, kind of a bad ending but the rest of it is good

a/n: two posts in one day? who am i? actually i’m pretty proud of this and love it a lot so heck yeah. not requested but i saw this prompt and had to do it

You’ve never screamed so loud in your entire life. Not when watching any horror movie, not when your friends attempted to jump scare you, not when you almost got mugged walking home. Never.

But walking into your apartment after a pretty average day of work and finding a spider the size of a dinner plate (so you thought) taking refuge in the corner of your kitchen ceiling pulled a blood curling scream out of you. One you didn’t even know you were capable of. You flew out of the room, hiding behind the wall and only peaking into the room to get another glimpse of the spider.

As you stared at it, panic rising in your body and breathing cutting short. You squeezed your eyes shut. The longer you stared at it, the more you felt dozens of them crawling up your body. 

You were the biggest arachnophobe you knew of. Nothing invoked such a raw feeling of panic and fear in you than spiders did. You had no idea why. There was no traumatic event where you woke up to a spider sitting on your chest. It’s just how you were. 

Any spider made your skin crawl. 

It was the biggest irrational fear, yet it plagued you so much. You avoided spiders all through your life. Making other people kill them or take them out when you found them in your home, avoiding walking through gardens or forests where you could easily walk through a spider web. You also vowed to never visit Australia, knowing you would easily faint should their extra large spiders decide to visit you.

Now here you stood, in your apartment, back to a wall as you hid from a spider that was definitely not as big as you thought it was. You wanted to cry but seeing as you were an adult and lived alone, you had to figure out a solution to the situation.

You remembered that your next door neighbor was a big beefy dude that politely held the elevator for you once and would definitely be able to help you with your problem. 

You straightened up and peeked into the kitchen again, your heart stopping when you saw the spider had disappeared from that corner. Fear crawled up your spine as you spun around, making sure the entire area of five feet around you was spider-free. Then, you looked at the ceiling corner diagonal of the other one and found the spider there. 

Feeling slightly frustrated with how genuinely afraid you felt and how much you wanted to curl up and cry, you sped out of your apartment and down the hall. That spider moved fast, so you needed to act quickly.

You knocked three times and hoped to god that your neighbor was home. You didn’t know what you’d do if he wasn’t. No wait, you’d probably cry.

The door opened after a few agonizing moments. You noticed he had a few extra locks on his door as he opened them, but decided you were so scared of the eight-legged thing in your apartment that you didn’t care if this man had two heads. So long as he could help you.

“Hi, can I help you?” Bucky questioned, a hesitant smile on his face as he looked you over. You almost forgot about the spider in your apartment because of how handsome this man was. 

“Hi, um, I’m Y/N. I live next door. I know we’ve never talked before but there is a really, really, really huge spider in my apartment. Can you please kill it for me?” You quickly spat out, your body trembling with fear. You hoped it wasn’t too obvious. People often found it amusing how terrified you were and used it to make fun of you.

Your neighbor nodded, no sign of amusement on his face. “Alright, sure. Where is it?”

You lead him back into your apartment. He glanced around at your picture frames and knick-knacks but it was a short trip to the kitchen. Upon arriving, you gasped. 

The spider was nowhere in sight. “No, no, no, no.” You mumbled under your breath, spinning around, checking your surrounding area, then looking around the ceiling. No spider. 

You opened a few cupboards with your trembling hands and frantically searched the kitchen. “It was here. I swear, it was here.” Tears prickled your eyes as you thought about possibly not finding the spider. 

“Hey, hey.” Bucky placed his hands on your shoulders, making you jump, but then relax. His blue eyes scanning your face. He spoke softly to you, and it easily calmed you. “It’s okay. We’re gonna find it. Don’t panic.”

You nodded, blinking back the tears and taking a step back. “Sorry for freaking out. We should start looking.”

He followed you into the living room, which was across from the kitchen. “You always been this afraid of spiders?” He questioned, trying to make small talk as you searched the room. 

“It got really bad when I was around twelve. I’m not sure why.” You moved to help him pull back the sofa to look behind it when he pushed it slightly forward with a single hand. With raised eyebrows, you kept searching. “They just invoke this whole different type of fear within me that nothing else does.”

“Everybody’s scared of something.” He replied, looking behind the tv. 

“Right,” You breathed, stepping back from the DVD holder. “It��s not here. That’s terrifying.”

“We just gotta keep looking.” He smiled a little, making you melt inside. You agreed and lead him to the bathroom. 

“This is the bathroom.” You stated, pushing the already slightly open door with your foot. “You check here. I’ll check my bedroom.”

“Got it.” He nodded, stepping into the bathroom. 

You went into your room, searched quickly, found nothing. According to the silence from across the hall, Bucky also found nothing. You met him back in the hallway and turned to your office door. “The last room, last place it could possibly be.”

“Want me to walk in first?” He questioned, looking down at you with concern. 

You looked away from his soft blue eyes. “Yeah, sure.”

He walked forward and opened the door. He slowly crept in and you stayed a foot outside the door. “Is it in there?” You almost whispered, watching him as he glanced around the room. His eyes landed on a spot on the ceiling and your blood chilled.

“You got a broom or something in this place, doll?”

“The closet to your left.” You replied, taking a few steps forward and peering into the room. You regretted it instantly and recoiled out of the room.

He returned into your view with a broom and held the bristled part up to the ceiling. “Alright, fucker, time to die.” He mumbled under his breath before stabbing the broom at the ceiling.

You heard a soft thud and peeked back into the room. You saw the spider on the ground, on it’s back, and curling into itself. You shuddered, wrapping your arms around yourself and focusing on your neighbor instead. “It’s huge. Too huge. Why does it exist? Oh god.”

“It’s a wolf spider.” He said, stabbing it a few more times to make sure it was dead. “Not uncommon around these parts. Though I’m not entirely sure how it made its way into your apartment.”

“I’m not sure either.” You replied, going into the closet to get a trash bag for Bucky to put it in.

He scooped it into the trash bag and tied it off. You followed him to the door. “Thank you so much.” You sighed, throwing your arms around him as you both stood in the doorway of your apartment. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you. I wouldn’t have slept if I didn’t find it and I still don’t know if I’ll sleep comfortably but thank you.”

He hugged you back with one arm, keeping the trash bag a bit away from you. “You’re welcome, Y/N. If you ever need somebody to kill another spider for you, I’m only a door away.” He smiled at you, a smile so beautiful you wished you could see it for the rest of your life.

“Of course, and thank you so much again.” You smiled back, leaning against your door. “I’ll let you throw that out and get back to your own apartment.”

“I’ll see you again.” He gave you a small nod and another smile and turned around, beginning his walk to the elevator to throw the spider corpse in the big trash bins.

“Wait!” You called, realizing something.

He turned around and looked at you, curiosity in his gaze. 

“You never told me your name.” You smiled, a bit mischievous. 

Bucky seemed to think about it for a moment, an amused smile taking over his face as he chuckled lightly. “You can call me James. James Grant.”

Your smile grew. “Okay, James. Thank you again.”

His heart skipped a beat at the sound of his name in your voice. “See you around, doll.”

tag list: @lemonadeorange73 @just-saying-26 @amberkay284

[creepygamerpasta]

Hello! A conversation with my mother the other day inspired me to write this post on some guidance for when your hobbies are not liked and may be actively disliked by someone you are close to. This post is for everyone <3

My mother hates video games.

(Okay, technically there are a few she finds entertaining to watch someone else play, but it’s a reaaalllly short list. She hates playing games herself. Even mobile games.)

I, however, inherited my father’s love for video games (more than him, I might even say) and absolutely LOVE all the parts that go into them. Everything from writing to coding and character design, tropes and gameplay itself… *chef’s kiss* I’m in no way an expert in any of these things, but I love hearing, reading, and otherwise experiencing all of it.

As you can probably tell, this strong Interest of mine could never make it on the list of The Interests for my mother, not even if we could make a top 1000 list for her. Hell, we could probably make a top million list, and video games would still be absent from it.

First thing to keep in mind (always keep this in mind): just because they don’t like the Thing, does not mean they hate you. People have different interests. I know, I know, it’s really hard because… how could someone I know and care about not like this Amazing Thing? But I promise that they don’t hate you just because they don’t like the Thing. They probably have their own Thing they like, and you might not even like it. But that’s okay.

Now, most people would probably tell you to avoid what the other person dislikes and stick to Things that both parties enjoy. This isn’t bad advice. My mother taught me how to crochet, and even though I’m most certainly a novice, she enjoys seeing what I make, and I enjoy making stuff. That’s an example of a Thing we both like and can talk about/interact over. We both like writing (she is able to actually do it way more than I am though haha), and we’ve been trying to look into submitting short children’s stories and poems for a magazine. Yet another Thing we can do together.

But sometimes, you just have to talk about or show the Thing. I get it.

Try to figure out exactly what they don’t like about the Thing.

I’ve found the best way to do this is to be direct. Go ahead and ask them point blank what they don’t like or why they don’t like your Thing. It’s a lot easier and faster that way. They may not give you a good answer at first (“because it’s stupid!”), but if you keep pursuing it, you’ll get a more informative answer. If they seem to get more distressed, saying things like, “I don’t want to talk about it,” or “I just don’t, okay?!” then, it’s probably time to back off. Sometimes people don’t like the Thing for a specific reason that is a really serious reason, and if that’s the case, you should back off.

This is a very non-serious version of why someone may not like your Thing, but let’s say that you loved baking lemon cake and always wanted to share with a friend. The last time they ate lemon cake, however, they threw up really badly and haven’t been able to have it since. This doesn’t mean that your lemon cake is bad, but they just can’t have lemon cake. It’s better to just not give them lemon cake.

Here’s an example of figuring out what someone doesn’t like about the Thing you like:

It could be as simple as this (TW SPIDERS): my mother thinks tarantulas are cute and adorable. She thinks they have the most beautiful blue eyes and are wonderful, shy little creatures (except the deadly ones of course, stay away from those). She would tell me about how she and her brother would let them run over their legs as children because they were numerous where they lived. Me? Hell to the eff NO. The only spiders I like are African Jumping spiders (think Lucas the Spider if you’ve seen those videos) which are tiny, harmless, and, most importantly, stay away from me. I’m not arachnophobic per se, but I do not like random spider pictures coming up on my dash on any platform, and if I saw a tarantula in real life, I would put as much distance between it and me. Even the ones in Animal Crossing freak me out because yes, spiders really are fast, and I don’t like that.

So clearly I don’t like seeing spiders. How could we ever bond over this? Now, when it comes to something that could be a phobia, yeah, you should avoid it if someone has asked you not to talk about it (my partner has actual arachnophobia, so we don’t talk about spiders unless I forget and have to be reminded). But you know what doesn’t freak me out? Sharing facts about spiders. My mom and I can fact share all about different animals, including spiders, and I won’t get freaked out. My issue with her Thing is the idea of seeing one or feeling one, but I can talk about them.

For the Thing in question (video games), my mom doesn’t like the pointlessness of them (gasp). She doesn’t like when you have to do a mindless task, and she doesn’t like it when video games eat up your time when you’re supposed to be doing stuff you promised you’d do or spend time with family, etc. I know exactly why she feels this way (let’s just say that when my father hyperfixates especially on video games, it gets really extreme and really detrimental).

After you figure out what they don’t like about your Thing, figure out what they may like.

Remember earlier when I said my mother likes writing? Well, that translates to video games! She may have zero interest in gameplay, but she does like funny, story-based or focused games. She could care less about the graphics, background of epic plots, or why it’s so cool that this particular Voice Actor is voicing this character, but she loves the “stupid” funny games because of their writing.

I do watch Markiplier videos in her presence (she likes his voice and narration skills - apparently, he reminds her of my brother?), and sometimes, she pays attention to them. Cue West of Loathing and Manual Samuel. Two games that have a lot to offer but are probably not considered “serious” games (I don’t like the idea of a serious vs. casual gamer or video games btw), and they are meant to be funny. She howled with laughter and would actually ask me to rewind parts she missed of the video.

My mind was blown. But… but she hates video games? But not all parts of video games.

So okay, she likes goofy games with funny writing. Seems like this could work. While she will be lost during most of my chatter about video games, she does like watching the games with me that are funny, so there’s a shared activity we can do.

And finally, empathy for the other person AND yourself.

I don’t mean to imply that you don’t have empathy. If you’ve read this far, it’s probably because you don’t want to hurt people or you want to understand why people don’t like your Thing.

Having empathy does not mean forcing yourself to like their Thing, and it doesn’t mean hating your own Thing. All it means is understanding that they do not like your Thing (or that you don’t like theirs) and that that is okay. If you’re ever unsure about if they are up to hearing or participating in your Thing, go ahead and ask! Here’s something you can try saying:

“Hey, do you mind if I talk to you about (Thing) for a bit?”

“Do you want to do (Thing) with me?”

My dear mother never revealed that she hates video games to me until I was older (at least middle school). She knew that I loved them, and that she would never feel the same way about them, but she didn’t want to crush my little dreams when I was a small child. I’ll forever be thankful, but if you really, really don’t like the Thing of another person, it’s better in the long run to let them know. I felt awful when I found out that all those years I had been talking about a Thing that she had zero interest in and actually disliked. As I’ve explained already in this post, we’ve since come to common likes within the Thing, but still.

But what I do admire about her in this case is the fact that she knows she will never love my Thing the way I live my Thing. She knows that she has zero interest and actually has animosity, but she isn’t a d!ck about it. And that’s what’s important.

And what’s also important is that I explain nicely and focus on the parts she likes when talking about video games.

And if you don’t want to hear about or do their Thing, here are some gentle but clear ways you can decline:

“I’m busy right now, but I would love to hear about (their Thing) later.” - only use this one if you actually do want to hear about it later!

“I’m not a huge fan of (specific part of Thing), but if you wanted to talk about (different part of Thing that you don’t mind/other Thing they really like), I’d love to hear all about it.”

And sometimes, you just really can not listen to the Thing ever because of serious reasons:

“I know you really like (Thing), but I really can’t stand it. I would still love to talk to you, but can we talk about (a different Thing they like/shared Thing)?”

“(Thing) really bothers me. I can’t talk about it, but why don’t we do (other Thing)?”

The important parts are to acknowledge that the other person loves Thing, even if you don’t. And they should treat your Thing with respect, too! They don’t have to like it, but they don’t have to slam it.

If you’re ever unsure of how to treat their Thing, go ahead and ask. This is a case where being clear and direct is definitely the best course of action!

And like I said at the very beginning, just because they don’t like your Thing does not mean they don’t like you.

[anxious-logic]

So my family and I are doing some tent camping, and I’m just gonna geek out about nature for a bit!

One night we were in PA, at the top of a little hill in the forest. The trees and grass were pretty normal (not exactly my usual, coming from the Midwest, but not super unusual or fascinating or anything).

The animals, though.

At this campsite, we were finding cicadas everywhere. Little inchworms. Cool, big beetles. Even a frog!! (All of this was just in our little 10x10 campsite too!)

Pictures under the cut - tw for pictures of insects, frogs, and arachnophobia.

Bit of a blurry picture because it was going very fast, but here’s a close up of a beetle!

Cicada! I haven’t seen the orange ones before (only in pictures) so that was cool to see.

Frog! We weren’t really near a creek or anything so it was a bit surprising to see one (although very interesting).

And finally, a story time! Tw for mentions and pictures of spiderwebs and spiders.

So as I mentioned, we’re tent camping. This means that we set up the tents, then put up the rain fly to keep ourselves dry, then put the thermarests/sleeping bags/pillows/etc in the tent to sleep on. We don’t bring our shoes in the tent, because they have dirt/mud/rocks/other things that are uncomfortable to sleep on stuck to the bottom of them, so we leave the shoes out under the rain fly to keep dry.

(It rained pretty hard the night of this story, so it was very good that we had the rain fly up.)

Anyway, I woke up in the morning (at like 5:30, because that’s when the sun comes up during summer…. Yaaaay) and hung out on my phone for a bit, got changed, started packing things up a bit, etc. At this point I didn’t have my glasses on or contacts in because it’s early and I forgot (despite having absolutely terrible vision).

When I unzipped the tent to pick up my shoes to put them on and get some breakfast, I was very surprised to feel something sticky in my shoe. I grab my glasses and look at my shoe to find a spider web covering about half of the opening of my shoe, as well as being attached to my mom’s sandal!

So, I’m kinda intrigued and yucked out, but not too bad at this point. (We’re camping outside, bugs happen, spiders happen too. I’m not a huge fan of spiders, but generally I subscribe to the “you ignore it, it’ll ignore you” philosophy of dealing with bugs/insects/etc.) I call my mom over to take a look, because it’s cool and I haven’t taken my adhd meds yet so I’m interested in the very little things.

My mom is also appropriately impressed; this spider only had about 8 hours to make this whole web, from the time I took off my shoes to get in the tent until the time I grabbed them to get up.

Then she says, “you should probably make sure the spider isn’t still in there before you clean it out.”

This was something that hadn’t even occurred to me. It looked like the web wasn’t even all that big, just a little bit over the opening for the foot; I’ve seen spiderwebs like this before that I’m fine with just pulling off. (It’s not super fun, it always clings to my hands because that’s what spiderwebs are designed to do, but eh, not a big deal.) They’ve never still had the spiders in them.

So I get my phone and turn on the flashlight to take a look inside the shoe.

And I see this.

That’s the spider in there that the camera is focusing on. It’s not on the floor of the shoe - no, this spider went and made a web going from the entrance of the shoe to the toe, halfway between the top and sole, and is sitting in it waiting for prey. (Because that’s what spiders do.) And it’s not a huge spider either - it could probably fit on a penny, or a nickel with extra room. So this spider made this huge-ass web in less than 8 hours, and was very rudely interrupted by me waking up, grabbing my shoe, and tearing the web off of its support (the outside of the shoe).

Once I noticed the spider, I showed my mom too (because… animals! Nature! Cool!). She also thought it was cool, and then said “ask dad to get it out, cause I don’t wanna do it.”

(She also said it was a “boy thing,” and gender roles are dumb but you have to admit kind of nice to utilize when it means I don’t have to get the spider out of my shoe.)

So he came over from where he was making breakfast, was also impressed by the spider, then grabbed the shoe and a stick and got the web and spider out of the shoe.

So that was a fun experience to have at 6:30am!

[worldlyspeechie-blog]

First impressions: you have left the western world, Phnom Penh

(A long post but worth it, will even make you giggle!)

Everything is opposite. I can’t stress that enough. It will overwhelm your senses. This is only positive. You will see things of wonder and fascination; and things which go against everything our parents taught us. You will hear the most magical of sounds we aren’t privledged to in western society; but inevitably hear undesirable noises. You will smell amazing aromas leaving your mouth watering; and then literally the next step smell odours you couldn’t dream about to send you running for fresh air.

Let me give you an idea...

Waking up the first morning, I initially heard the incessant noise from a building construction site, but then I listened closer, walked downstairs and was blessed to hear monks chanting. What an amazing soul filling sound unlike anything we experience at home. The next days have been followed by a mix of monks singing or praying and the children across the road at school practicing their English every morning; standing out the front they altogether say the numbers 1-4 followed by ABCs and singing of nursery rhymes in both English and Khmer.

Food generally smells delicious but be careful sniffing twice if your moving along, because the next time may be the complete opposite! Markets are filled with the most amazing food, as are the many stalls and restaurants, some I know and some are completely foreign; they also enjoy fried tarantulas, which anyone who knows me could have imagined my response - significant arachnophobia over here! Can appreciate others may find a delicacy however..

Oh and in the markets, bartering is huge and you should only pay about 50% of the original starting price - just $1 has a whole new meaning to me I this country! It could buy me 4 2L waters, a beer (if I drank it!), most of my dinner or a 10 min tuk tuk to get me to my destination!

Traffic rules are more like suggestions im told and sure is that true! There are lights which are occasionally followed by 80% on main roads only, but intersections generally look like Japan’s Harajuku crossing, things going everywhere! Cars, tuk tuks, bikes, motorcycles all sharing the road (or footpaths when not covered in eateries or other stuffs), ducking and weaving, going in opposite directions. Children who look 18 months old casually sitting on the bikes barely holding on or standing holding onto their parents shoulders; helmets also optional. School aged children driving motorcycles are also a daily sight!

Pedestrians when you cross the street it’s like your own personal game of arcade frogger. And if you go splat, don’t worry frog sautéed in lemongrass and ginger is seriously delicious, we had it last night for dinner! But honestly, if you want to cross before dark, just stick your hand out and go and the traffic will just slow or avoid you (hopefully!)

Tuk tuks are one of the most fun things you could experience in Cambodia. Make sure you hold your bags tight as the number of bag snatches are on the rise with unsuspecting tourists caught daily. Also don’t stick your phone out to take pictures unless you don’t care for it anymore! When considering your travel insurance, do not overlook accidental death and body dismemberment as you can literally reach out and touch someone - warning please keep your limbs inside the tuk tuk at all times! Oh and the number of people/animals/things (eg doors, shopping, coconuts, dead animal carcasses) on or in any vehicle is purely dependent upon your ability to play Tetris!

And lastly you will sweat. You will be hot and covered in bug repellant. You will  go through multiple outfit changes. Tip? Dont bring more clothes. Buy washing powder.. or visit the laundromat! Or buy the clothes here - much more suited to this climate than ours! Also don’t forget deodorant! But in the end, this country is worth every minute of being uncomfortable! And it’s not all the time..! ;) :)

[nacsygen]

i’m glad i don’t have a large following anymore, so i don’t have to defend my opinions from anons at every turn, but when i say “(blank) are bros” i don’t mean they’re bros like the Bro stereotype.  i mean they’re chill, they’re friendly, oftentimes they’re helpful, and if i’m talking about animals it generally implies More Afraid Of You, etc.  like, banana spiders and huntsman spiders, though they’re giant and terrifying-looking (to quote from This Book Is Full Of Spiders by David Wong, they look like “spiders built for war”), and though they’re technically invasive to florida, like so many other invasive species to florida, they’ve settled comfortably in to their respective niches without causing TOO much ecological stress on the existing biome or other large predator species of their niche.  but the thing is, neither species, large and terrifying as they are, are any danger to humans - far less so, in fact, than native and much smaller species like black widows and brown recluses.  

banana spiders, or golden orb weavers, are transplants from central america that have long since become extremely comfortable in florida over the last century.  they’re possibly my favorite spiders, because i just think they’re so beautiful, as massive and strong as the females get, and they spin undeniably gorgeous massive webs - hence the name golden orb weavers. their webs are huge and perfect and shine a gorgeous gold in the sunlight, one that i’ve never been able to capture in a photograph.  they’re also incredibly strong and require effort, even as a human adult, to break. we had a summer where the giant queen spider, the biggest golden orb weaver i’ve ever seen, whom i named Boudicca, spun a web so giant it took up one whole open end of our porch (probably eight by twelve feet), and her daughters and cohorts filled the top and bottom and other open side with so many other webs it was almost like we had a screened-in porch.  they feasted in delight on mosquitos and moths and in general were great at controlling pest insects, especially at night.

bro species, as i classify, are also usually more afraid of people than people should be of them.  the thing about banana spiders (please look up a picture here if you don’t have arachnophobia) is that when i say they’re huge, i mostly mean that they have big tank bodies, moreso than leg length, though their legs do get really long, and are beautifully colored with an underdusting of gorgeous iridescent hair. boudicca was the biggest banana spider i’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and she was maybe six inches from leg to leg at most width, but her carapace was incredibly thick and strong, maybe four inches from top to tail. but when i tested petting her back very gently with just the tip of my finger, she started vibrating her web violently in the “DANGER! DANGER!” signal, which in turn alerted all the other smaller banana spiders in the interconnected network (interne? sorry not sorry) to also shake their webs with the DANGER! DANGER! PREDATOR! signal.  banana spiders are huge and spin webs that are incredibly strong, but you just touch one on the back and it’s like OH SHIT A PREDATOR BETTER WARN EVERYBODY I’M BOUTTA DIE!!  banana spiders do not respond to threats with violence.  they react with “warn everybody else before i probably die”.  they are the opposite of aggressive. they technically can envenomate humans mildly , but only will do so under extreme duress, ie being pinched or attacked. they would first sound the alarm to all the other spiders in their network. who said spiders can’t be bros.

moving on, huntsman spiders are possibly the most terrifying-looking invasive giant spiders in florida.  (look them up if you wanna see really scary-looking giant spiders). they are loners and they don’t spin webs, and like their name would imply they are free-roaming hunters. they love to creep into florida homes because their favorite food is cockroaches, and no matter how clean you keep your space, if it’s in a rural part of florida, roaches will encroach. despite technically being invasive from australia, huntsman spiders have become an integral part of the ecosystem, feasting on roaches and other pest species.  the thing is, as big and scary-looking as they are, they’re actually big dumb babies who are terrified of giant humans and will freeze and scrunch up and try to hide upon being exposed to light. i have multiple photos of me holding up rulers or my hand next to them to show that they’re 5 or 6 inches long but also scared-motionless weenies. they would never attack a large potential predator, preferring instead to try and make themselves small and hide and hope they don’t get seen. they do have venom, but their fangs are too small to properly penetrate human skin to deliver it, and a bite is extremely rare. usually they’re far more feeling threatened by a human than wanting to attack it.

pretty much all venomous species of florida are shy and more scared of you than you are of it, but to sum up: foes: black widows brown recluses water mocassins coral snakes rattle snakes bros: house spiders golden orb weavers huntsman spiders all the other fifty some varieties of florida snakes almost all florida wildlife tbh with common sense

[0goth-hippie0]

Questions for no reason but boredom

1: 6 of the songs you listen to most? Very hard. I have wayyy too many for me to bring it down to just six, so I’ll give you six I can play on repeat anywhere. Tool-Sober; Disturbed-Overburdened; 10 Years-Fix Me; The Amity Affliction- Ivy(Doomsday); Creed-My Sacrifice

2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? Tie between Joe Rogan and Johnny Depp

3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17. (“And why would that be?” Kronos’s golden eyes glittered) Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

4: What do you think about most? Death and the afterlife. Those that mean the most to me. Why I love.

5: What does your latest text message from someone else say? “I bought everyone a new toothbrush so I grab you one for when you come here”- Mom

6: Do you sleep with or without clothes? Depends on what time of year. Prefer just shorts.

7: What’s your strangest talent? Being able to eat anytime, anyplace, hungry or not.

8: Girls… (finish the sentence); Boys… (finish the sentence) Girls like flowers; Boys need them.

9: Ever had a poem or song written about you? A poem. Once.

10: When is the last time you played the air guitar? Listening to Chelsea Grin while running a 5k.

11: Do you have any strange phobias? Not really strange one, but a phobia. Arachnophobia. Along with Autophobia, the fear of being alone, unwanted, disregarded, or unimportant.

12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose? Lol, a pencil once. 4th grade.

13: What’s your religion? I categorize myself as a Christian because my beliefs are more comparable to that, but I am also a spiritualist. I don’t necessarily like the idea of religion or care to categorize myself at all. I have a very unique way of describing my place alongside God’s in this reality.

14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? Running, walking through nature, reading, or meditating.

15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Lol both? Maybe? I don’t like my face, but I’m no photographer either.

16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? Yikes couldn’t be broader, huh? I have a pretty subjective tie for 1st right now between three bands; Tool, The Amity Affliction, and Breaking Benjamin

17: What was the last lie you told? “I’m not worried”

18: Do you believe in karma? Absolutely. Karma is the ultimate equalizer.

19: What does your URL mean? “0darkest-light0” describes me. I try to be a light to others. A hippie of sorts. Very open minded and love spreading, but also so dark on my own. Very deep and cold to myself. Therefore I am the darkest light.

20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? My greatest weakness is self doubt, or “I love you”. My greatest strength is my determination, and encouragement from those I care the most about.

21: Who is your celebrity crush? Scarlett Johansson

22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping? One of the many things I haven’t done.

23: How do you vent your anger? Grind my teeth and clinch my fists. Lots of communication and rationalization. Maybe a walk through a wooded area and some music. I used to have anger problems.

24: Do you have a collection of anything? Yes! A rock collection that was huge, bust sadly had been shrunken.

25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? I prefer to see a face, but phone talks are easier at the moment.

26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become? I wouldn’t change anything. I am me no matter what. I will not stay me as I am now. I will change and grow more. That is life.

27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? I hate buzzing sounds. Like insects or weird electronics. I LOVE the sound of a breeze through leaves, light rain on a window pane, and slow, content, and light breathing.

28: What’s your biggest “what if”? What if everything is not going to be okay?

29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Yes and we are aliens.

30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm. I stretch my right arm out and meet my beer(Dos Equis), and my left arm meets a wall.

31: Smell the air. What do you smell? Home.

32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to? A trap house with lots of trash, drugs, filth, and reasons to shower 15 times.

33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast? East Coast

34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender. Amy Lee

35: To you, what is the meaning of life? The meaning of life is to find happiness. To live for whatever it is that makes you happy. Through happiness comes love, and love will show you that we are all one

36: Define Art. Art is emotion, imagination, creativity, and passion in whatever medium works for you. Writing, music, painting, singing, teaching, loving, cooking, etc. Art is whatever you use to bring your inner self out for the world to glimpse your infinite self.

37: Do you believe in luck? A little, but only with certain things.

38: What’s the weather like right now? Clear skies and chilly.

39: What time is it? 1:35am.

40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed? Yes but no, not a serious one anyway.

41: What was the last book you read? An Edgar Allen Poe collection of poems and short stories written by him.

42: Do you like the smell of gasoline? Yes I do.

43: Do you have any nicknames? “Cool” or “Coofy” by everyone who knows(few know).

44: What was the last film you saw? “What Dreams May Come”

45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? Broken Collarbone

46: Have you ever caught a butterfly? No! Let them be! Too beautiful to capture!

47: Do you have any obsessions right now? My thoughts and music. And Tumblr lol

48: What’s your sexual orientation? Straight

49: Ever had a rumor spread about you? Yes, but who gives a fuck?

50: Do you believe in magic? Yes. Magic is everything. Emotion is magic. Life is magic.

51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? I don’t hold grudges, but I never forget.

52: What is your astrological sign? Taurus

53: Do you save money or spend it? Both! Save to spend ya know?

54: What’s the last thing you purchased? A new phone screen

55: Love or lust? Love. Always.

56: In a relationship? In every way but actually.

57: How many relationships have you had? 3, 1 serious

58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Nope!

59: Where were you yesterday? With my friend Christian and a long lost cousin.

60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet

of you? Not a thing.

61: Are you wearing socks right now? Yes

62: What’s your favorite animal? Is all of them an option?? Top 5 categories are dogs, cats(including large ones), bats, reptiles, and “corvid” birds.

63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you? Understanding and care for them.

64: Where is your best friend? Sleeping for School tomorrow

65: Give me your top 5 favorite blogs on Tumblr. ahappydark, purplebuddhaquotes, omnipotentdarkness, thegoodvybe, iloveyou

66: What is your heritage? Latino, Irish, Native American.

67: What were you doing last night? Drinking and talking with a great friend.

68: What do you think is Satan’s last name? Edwards

69: Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off? More and needed probably lol

70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend? Yeah I think I’m a decent guy. Fun and always looking for the brighter side.

71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do? I can totally get another job, AND have a new friend to do it with!

72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid? a)I tell mostly everyone I think would truly care; b)I share them with the ones I care the most about, I can think of 4 people besides my family; c)No, why fear what was already inevitable?

73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love. You can’t have one without the other, but love. Through love you can get anything. Same can be said with trust though.

74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? Chevelle-I get it

75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number? **01. Sorry it’s too easy.

76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship? Communication, trust, stability, emotion, passion, intimacy, similar goals, loyalty, determination, common interests.

77: How can I win your heart? Good food, true love, compliments, encouragement, and lots of laugh.

78: Can insanity bring on more creativity? 100%

79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far? To stop smoking pot.

80: What size shoes do you wear? 10.5

81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone? I want my family and friends to carve their names into my tree(I want to be a tree when I die)

82: What is your favorite word? Serendipity. The meaning, sound, and flow of the word on your tongue.

83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word heart. Pain.

84: What is a saying you say a lot? Everything is a Circle

85: What’s the last song you listened to? Pierce the Veil-King for a Day

86: Basic question; what’s your favorite color/colors? Black, deep purple, forest green, and midnight blue.

87: What is your current desktop picture? Stars

88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be? Child molesters

89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on? When asked by specific persons, “Who do you love?”

90: One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do? I would debate if I was dreaming or not, then still attempt to kill them.

91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power? The power of flight.

92: You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? 30 minutes of my childhood with my deceased grandmother.

93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? Don’t want to get into too much detail so ”A family dispute”

94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be? Taylor Swift lol so she can write a song about me.

95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? Greece

96: Do you have any relatives in jail? Yes, two.

97: Have you ever thrown up in the car? No I have not in a car.

98: Ever been on a plane? Four times!

[web-fi]

It’s our fourth proper day in Senegal, and I’ll admit we slept badly. Not because of the beautiful lodge, or the comfy beds, nor was there any night noise. No, we slept badly because of my arachnophobia…

You see, I felt a need to go to the toilet at around midnight after I had been playing around on my iPhone. The late hours seemed to be the only time when the wifi worked sort of correctly. Although I had sworn not to work one minute during this vacation, I still wanted to know what was going on. And I was dying to share our beautiful adventures in pictures across my multiple social media channels.

Anyways, I go to the loo and then when I went to flush I noticed this huge thing right next to my hand on the wall. It was a gigantic spider. I mean really big. And it was green and red like. Or that’s what it seemed like at that time. I scooted out of the bathroom and turned to the only man available: my eldest son. Now Winston is 11 and he’s a big boy, bad-ass hockey player. He was going to get this spider for me.

So I woke my poor boy who came into the bathroom and toilet to look at the huge monster mommy had found. And he saw it and thought it was gigantic too. There was no way he was going to come anywhere near it. Let alone kill it. So it was up to me again.

Next tactic was to go into the toilet again, this time armed with a chemical spray which we had in our room to kill all massive insects. I approached the huge massive spider and sprayed it. At which the monster scuttled behind the toilet lid. Now we were in a fine mess.

I closed the toilet door and sprayed the entire frame with insect repellent so that the spider could not get out. Then I barred the bottom of the door with a rolled-up towel. Safe for now. I need to think quickly and act!

I looked around our room to find a telephone to call the front desk so they could send someone to kill the damn thing. It is now that I discover that there is no phone. And I suddenly recollect that this lodge is a charm hotel and that in fact, I didn’t really remember seeing a front desk or receptionist.

I remember our tour guide telling us that there were guards on the grounds to keep us safe and we had passed a man sitting on a chair in the bushes with a baseball bat when we came back to our suite the previous evening after dinner. Now if I set out to find that guard and to get him to come back to our room to remove the indesirable guest. Sounds like a great plan, right?

Off I go into the thick pitch black of the night, armed with a torch. It is the only time I used my flash light during this vacation. I had bought 3 flashlights (one for each of us) and also 3 head lights. Feeling pretty happy with myself that finally my purchase was proving to be worth while…. And then of course I started thinking. Oh woe me! It was pitch black and I could only see what my flash light was lighting up. What if a snake fell out of a tree and onto my head. What if a huge spider jumped out and bit me. What if there were other big fierce animals that come out in the night. And here I am walking about as sitting duck in hunting season. Or what if there were thugs and villains roaming around, waiting for a little blonde tourist to snatch up? There was no sign of a guard anywhere and panic had overtaken me. I made a resolute demi-tour and marched straight back to my room. Bad idea!

So no phone, no guard, and outside seemed to be yet more dangerous than inside with huge gigantic spider, which might be poisonous. So I did what any European would do in my case. I googled the lodge, found the telephone number and called that on my mobile. Somebody just had to help me! To my surprise, it was the owner himself who answered and by the sounds of it, he was asleep in bed already. Briefly explained my predicament at which the owner snapped back at me that there was nobody there to help me till morning and that there are no poisonous spiders or animals in Senegal. I was perfectly safe and would I please go back to bed?

We slept with three in a bed, me Winston and Lilly, the baby in his own crib. The next morning we all refused to go to toilet in the loo, and I will with great shame admit that the shower proved to be an excellent alternative. And that’s how it would be until somebody would come to rescue us from this animal stuck in the toilet!

Anyways, we had a lovely day despite sleep deprivation. We went down to a palm tree forest, where we enjoyed the morning splashing around in a local swimming pool by the river. There was a bar with deliciously fresh drinks. The kids went kayaking. It was peaceful and freedom and beautiful. We ate delicious food, shrimps and chicken and french fries in the shade of the trees.

That afternoon, we enjoyed some feet-up time back at Souimanga Lodge. I made a big scene to get someone to kill the animal in the toilet. They sent me an enormous big man who looked not at ease at all to get said animal. Luckily for him, there was no animal in sight when he came. So he abundantly sprayed the bathroom and left looking very relieved to have escaped this close encounter. I didn’t trust it one bit. Not one bit.

In the evening, we went out again for a ride on a motor boat down the Saloum Delta river. We talked about the local industry and fishing activities. How people make a living, which type of fish they catch, the boats they hire or buy. It was absolutely beautiful.

We ended the day with a delicious meal in Souimanga Lodge and am happy to report that when we made it back to our room, our spider guest showed up again, this time at safe distance perched up on the ceiling. We gracefully closed the door, sprayed the door and stuffed the bottom of the door with towels. Hello shower!

  What do you think? How would you deal with a massive spider when in Senegal? Let me know in the comments below.

Every day is an opportunity to make a new happy ending #travelwithkids #senegal #africa It's our fourth proper day in Senegal, and I'll admit we slept badly. Not because of the beautiful lodge, or the comfy beds, nor was there any night noise.

[hannah-honestly-blog]

Get To Know Me

I've decided (even though nobody will probably read this) to put together a list of get to know me questions I found on google images (great source) and answer them all below. If anything, I think everyone likes a chance to think a little more in-depth about themselves and I certainly welcome a chance to learn a little about myself too.

So, here are twenty-three questions and answers about me:

What is your full name?

Hannah Kay Dalton.

What is your star sign?

Scorpio. One of the most negatively portrayed sign there is... manipulative, possessive, jealous 😉

What are three fears that you have?

Spiders (I suffer hugely from arachnophobia), rollercoasters (although I giggle like a madwoman when I'm coaxed onto one) and flying.

What are three random things you know?

I'm not sure this counts, but I know how to make an amazing mug of hot chocolate, I think it's the way I mix the milk and powder. I know the best place to feel for a dogs pulse is in the leg crease beside the groin. And I know that if you mix cornflour and water you get a really fun mixture which hardens when you punch it and melts through your fingers if you pick it up (good tip if you have kids or are just a big kid yourself).

What is the last song you listened to?

Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. I have been playing certain songs to my bump in the hope that she picks up good music taste, and Ed Sheeran in my book is an amazing singer and lyricist.

What are your turn-ons?

Sense of humour is massive to me. I like someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously and is able to see the fun in life. Someone who smells good and takes care of themselves in a general good hygiene manner is always good, too. And I like stubble, a lot.

What are your turn-offs?

Someone who is egotistical, looks down on others or generally a bully. There is also a massive difference between self-love and actually being in love with yourself.

Reason I joined Tumblr?

I initially joined years ago with just a picture blog, and the pictures were just ones I reblogged from others. I think what drew me to tumblr was the fact that there are so many unique people on here all expressing themselves in different ways. I love it. My blog now is all about an outlet for me, which I also love, as I believe writing is good for the soul.

Do you have any tattoos or piercings?

Yes, I have two tattoos. I have a roses on my right thigh and paw prints on my wrist. Not the most unique, but special to me in their own ways. I have my lobes pierced, and used to have my scaffolding and nose pierced but took them out a couple of years ago when I was waitressing.

What are some of your favourite movies?

For comedy, I'd have to opt for anything with Melissa McCarthy in. She is hilarious, particularly in the films Spy and The Heat. I also love Sandra Bullock, and have seen many of her films, too. My Sister's Keeper is good when I fancy a good cry, and the book even better.

What are some of your favourite books?

So many. Me Before You by Jojo Meyes, because it's storyline is incredible. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak because he is a genius of a wordsmith and the words in it are beautiful. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness because the use of language and spelling in it is refreshing and charming.

What are some of your favourite foods?

Neck of lamb is a massive favourite of mine, thanks to my partner introducing it to me. I also love most veg, and belly pork and stuffing is gorgeous. I like really hearty, home-cooked meals that fill the house with amazing smells whilst they're cooking.

Do you drink and if so, what is your go-to drink?

I do, when I'm not pregnant of course. It depends on the situation. If I'm out in the pub with my boyfriend I will always opt for vodka and coke, at home I like a glass of Bailey's on the sofa while we watch TV. I used to be a barmaid so I've tried a few drinks and those two have to be my favourites. I'm also partial to a cider, though, especially in summertime.

What is your honest view of yourself?

Neutral. I try not to let my mind go to self-deprecation, it's never good for you. If there's something I can change and desperately want to, I will. I'm comfortable with the way I look, but I don't perhaps see myself the way my boyfriend does. I'm trying to adopt a healthy mindset when it comes to my body, as I will have a daughter soon and don't want her struggling with negative thoughts when she gets older.

What are your future plans?

To get married to my boyfriend, preferably in Greece, so we can have a nice relaxing honeymoon all rolled into one. I'd like to begin saving so that we can buy our own house one day, as opposed to renting. And one day I would like to further my studies, in particular I've been looking at a Canine Studies course with the view to possibly becoming a dog trainer. My ultimate goal is to own a kennels of some sort, but that could be a while off with little one on the way.

What are your flaws?

I can have a short temper at times, I can be incredibly stubborn and I don't always take advice on board.

What are your strengths?

I'm strong-minded yet open-minded. I'm resilient, optimistic and tend to always see the good in people unless they give me an explicit reason to doubt them.

Do you prefer tea or coffee?

Tea, all the way. I've tried coffee on several occasions (once when I was hungover...not good...) and I just can't get myself to like it. A good cuppa will always make bad situations seem that little less bad, and can honestly feel like a huge sigh of relief after a long day.

What is your favourite season?

I like all of them for different reasons I think. Spring is all about new beginnings, it's still cool enough that your thighs don't chafe, and new flowers and wildlife are emerging. Summer is a time to have picnics or go to a beer garden, and the sun is nice, although a little much for me in large doses. Autumn is beautiful and crisp and the colours changing can be absolutely breathtaking. And winter is the time for Christmas and family and, if you're lucky, snow.

What is one food you hate?

Seafood. I would have said mushrooms, but I have long become accustomed to picking them out of my Mum's meals. Now that I live in my own place, mushrooms aren't a concern. I don't like anything too fishy, aside from what you get from the fish and chip shop on a Friday as a weekly treat. Not a fan at all.

What are some of your hobbies?

I love to read, always have and always will I suspect. I like writing, although I haven't done it in a long time. I love doing those adult colouring books, therapeutic and you get the satisfaction of a result in the end. I also love going on walks, the outdoors is a beautiful place, and it's even better if I have a dog with me.

Are there any hobbies you would like to have?

I'm going to take up baking and crocheting soon. I used to bake a little when I was younger and really want to start it up again. Nothing better than a slice of cake and cup of tea. Crocheting is more about gifts I can make for people, I bought a book online about crocheted stuffed animals, and think they will be perfect presents for my little girl when she gets here. I also wouldn't mind learning to cook more things from scratch. The only thing I've managed to master is chilli, which is fine, but it'd be nice to know more so I can do more of the cooking in the house. Take a load off my boyfriend's back occasionally.

Favourite books as a child?

I LOVED Jacqueline Wilson when I was younger, in fact I don't think I'd be bored reading her books even now. I had the majority of her books at one point. I also loved Enid Blyton's The Faraway Tree. And fairy stories were always a winner for me. Something I hope to pass to my little girl is the magic of the written word.

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