#i love digging in the dirt and getting the little critters

[deathbyfalldamage]

(BECOME TIIMMM!!!)

I've never heard someone use "get good",,, But!! Yeah I'm so glad I'm not scared of spiders anymore! I also love bug grabbing,,

- 💜 anon

"I heard it from somewheres a long time ago. Perhaps you should go bug catching, as long as you know your dangerous and don't grab for them."

[dooblebugss]

Some very general buggy headcanons for Bug Fables, focusing on the Main Three and the Explorers Association. Spoilers for the game.

Kabbu: (Rainbow Scarab Beetle)

- being a dung beetle (despite the name he's perfectly happy with mushrooms and leaves and everything else, he's actually quite diverse in his diet), he is very good at digging. He actually really likes digging too! Take a little dirt nap

- related to the previous, he loves being COMPRESSED. To mimic the feeling of layers of soil, he'll pile on blankets and pillows until he's satisfied. (During cuddle sessions he is at the very bottom of the pile)

- when it gets cold, his tunneling instinct increases ever so slightly. Not enough for him to start acting different, but he tends to hoard blankets.

Vi:

Leif (Technically a Fungus running on moth hardware, but sometimes old habits die hard lmao), Mothiva, and Yin:

- Bees don't need to 'dance' in order to communicate anymore, but Vi still uses a lot of hand gestures and moves a lot when talking, especially if she's frustrated or feels like she's not communicating well enough. If you bring attention to this, she will get mad.

- When cold, Vi will try to huddle up to bugs nearby. Typically Kabbu, but she's also done it to Maki, Zasp, Celia, and Stratos. (Leif is very jealous of this, but he's already cold, so-)

- they groom their ruffs, wings, and antennae frequently. For starters, this acts as a grounding experience that calms them down, and secondly no one likes having dirt on them. Yin isn't super good at it because she's so young, but she's getting better. Mothiva uses specialized powders and perfumes while doing it, but Leif does it the 'old fashioned way', aka with his spit, lol. Mothiva nearly fainted when she first saw him doing this.

- bright lights (especially artificial ones) can really mess up with their internal clock and GPS. I'd imagine Leif and Mothiva getting really really really lost in the Termite Kingdom and Bee Kingdom because of this.

Maki and Kina:

- they both have amazing reflexes, and they can go from a standstill to moving very quickly in what seems to be an instant

- they will track quick movement instinctually, especially from smaller bugs and critters. Most bugs assume this just shows how observant and skilled they are, when really it's a hunting trait. The two actually find it very embarrassing to suddenly interrupt a conversation when they see something move very quickly out of the corner of their eye and NEED to turn their head to see what it was.

Zasp: (I know the game says he's a potter wasp, but for my writing he's a paper wasp. He doesn't know this though, and assumes he is a potter wasp)

- when anxious, he will grind his mandibles against one another. It almost looks like he's chewing on nothing, and it would kinda be like chewing your lip or grinding your teeth. Chewing on things also helps.

- loves sleeping in little nest-like formations with blankets and pillows. He'd gather up all the bedding material, form a little "wall" with them, and climb in the middle to sleep.

Celia, Gen, and Eri:

- The three of them still use their antennae to help with direction, location, and general senses. This can lead to issues; Gen and Eri have accidentally followed each other for hours (cough cough ant spiral) and Celia, having a broken antennae, is terrible with directions. (If blindfolded, Celia will slowly go in circles)

- Ant Strength baby!!! The three of them are surprisingly strong, and can carry really heavy stuff! To compensate, they're a bit frail (it's why Celia has a shield, and why Gen and Eri rarely get into actual fights).

Levi:

- My man fucking loves Aphid Eggs. Due to the tension between the Ant Kingdom and Ladybugs, he actually doesn't like buying them in public. He usually settles for mushrooms.

- his blood is actually toxic, (something Delilah learned the hard way during a spar) and is sort of a 'last resort' defensive maneuver. If a target can get over being covered in blood, they definitely can't deal with the toxins.

Stratos: (I believe he's a Hercules Beetle)

- He's a technically nocturnal, so he's a little groggy during the day. To others it looks like he's being lazy, when really he's just tired and a little out of it. During the night is when he really shines as a fighter and explorer

- he can dig like Kabbu, but isn't very vocal nor enthusiastic about it. Stratos prefers a shallow little ditch to lay in, which is something he might do if he's really really tired.

Delilah:

- She only actually drinks blood during fights as an attack, or if she's seriously injured and needs a pick-me-up (Stratos will usually step up to the plate for that). She's totally fine with nectar and plant juices and berry juices otherwise. Delilah is aware of the stereotype, and she just kinda rolls her eyes at it.

- Delilah can actually fly like Vi or Zasp. But she prefers to keep this information to herself, as she's worried it'll have people ask her to do more work.

[that-basic-simp]

Scars

Venture X GN!Reader (No mention of reader's pronouns) CW: Top surgery scars, accidental walk-in WC: 1.3k+ A/N: I am enjoying playing Venture in OW and I love Venture as a character. They're so much fun and I love playing them! And I love the non-binary representation! (As a fellow non-binary pal.) And I also love the trans representation from Venture as well. As they are confirmed to be trans non-binary.

"Hey, Sloane, you up?" I knocked on their door.

I heard shuffling of sheets before a thump was followed. I hope they didn't just fall out of bed.

"I am such a klutz," they chuckled.

Yep.

The door swung open and I was met with my excavation partner: Sloane Cameron, or as we call them, Venture. Because they always love adventuring to dig sites and they were the biggest archeology nerd out of everyone here. I mean, we all are archeologists, but Venture was the most passionate out of all of us. They are really into what they do and wanting to preserve the natural world.

"Hey, Y/N!" they smiled at me with what they claimed as the perfect smile.

I couldn't help it. They were cute. Especially with the bed hair like that.

"Crew captain wants us to be out there."

"Oh shoot! I totally forget we were supposed to get up early! Tell him I'll be right there."

The door slammed closed followed by another thud.

"Shit," they whispered.

"Don't rush yourself," I said. "I don't want you to forget anything or trip on anything that will cause injury."

"I'll be fine, Y/N. Oh, if you're heading there, can you grab me something for breakfast?"

"Yep," I said and walked off.

"Thanks! You're the best."

I walked off towards the cafeteria and grabbed myself an apple along with a banana for Venture. I had also grabbed their favorite snack for whenever we're at the dig site. I know them. They're always hungry whenever we're out there. How can they not be? They're carrying around that giant drill for who knows how long. And when I try to lift it up, I find myself always struggling. I wonder what kind of physique Venture is hiding under there.

As I left the base, I headed to where the dig site was, which wasn't too far from where the base was. About a twenty minute walk. I reached the site and the others were talking to one another.

"Hey, Y/N," our captain said, waving to me. I waved back. "Did you get Cameron up?"

We also call each other by our last names, too.

"Yeah, they're coming soon. They should be here soon."

"Talking about me?" Venture asked, poking their head out from the ground.

"Told you," I gestured to them.

"Again, Cameron?" our captain said.

Venture crawled out of the hole they were in and brushed off the dirt and debris. I chuckled as that is always the norm with them, always popping up out of no where.

"Sorry, Cap," they said bashfully, rubbing the back of their neck. "I didn't mean to oversleep this time."

"No, that," he gestured to the hole.

"Oh right! I thought walking would take longer and it is also boring. You don't really get to see much. So I thought digging to the dig site would be even better!"

"What did you see down there?"

"Rocks, worms, and other critters," they took the banana from me as I handed it to them.

"Any moles?" I asked, smiling at them.

"Yeah!"

Venture reached into their pocket and pulled out a little mole.

"Look how cute! I think I might keep them. Rosetta would have a friend," they reached into their other pocket and pulled out Rosetta, their pet rock.

On the same hand, they dropped the mole with Rosetta. The little furry friend sniffed the rock before climbing onto it.

"See! They're getting along," Venture put the rock back in their pocket and placed the mole on the shoulder, only for them to fall off.

I reached over and caught the mole, holding it in my hands.

"I think we have to let them go," I said.

"Aww. Alright. I'll put them back," they cupped their hands together and I placed the mole in their palms.

The little critter was cute, not going to lie. How their nose sniffed around the air and their head moving from side to side. Venture walked over to the hole they came out of and carefully placed the mole back in the ground.

"Bye, little friend!" they said.

"Let's get to work, Venture," I said, grabbing my tools.

"Whew!" Venture wiped at the sweat on their forehead. "All in a day's work."

"Time to turn in," I said and set my tools down.

The two of us headed back towards the base.

"We make a great team!" they smiled. "No wonder Cap put the two of us together."

"Sorry I couldn't help out as much today."

"Don't worry about it, Y/N," they bumped my shoulder with theirs. "Besides, not like we found anything interesting today. Just rocks, rocks, and more rocks."

"Oh, here. I forgot to give this to you during our lunch break."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small bag of Pop Rocks.

"Whoa! They actually had them this time!"

"Yep. I made sure that we always have some."

"Thanks, Y/N! You truly are the best," Venture pulled me into a hug.

"T-Thanks, Venture," I breathed out, not quite prepared for their famous spine crushing hug.

After Venture let me go, they opened the small bag and poured the candy into their mouth. I could hear the popping from here, even with their mouth closed.

"I forgot how much these things popped," Venture giggled.

"Better than eating actual rocks," I said.

"Hey, sometimes when you're digging, you can't help but get a few rocks in your mouth."

"You'd love rock candy."

"Isn't this rock candy?" they pointed to the empty bag.

"No. Well, kind of. Not the type of rock candy I am thinking of. The rock candy I am thinking of actually looks like rocks."

"They do?!" Venture's eyes lit up.

"Yeah. Maybe when we return home I can take you to a place that has some."

"That'd be awesome, Y/N! Oh, after I get cleaned up, want to grab a bite to eat with me?"

"Am I your dig partner?"

"Yeah. I don't see how that relates to--oooh." Realization struck them. "You got me there, Y/N."

"I'll see you later, Venture."

The two of us parted ways and I took a shower in my room. Afterwards, I came out, dried my hair, and got changed into some more comfortable clothes. I walked past Venture's room and saw their door was slightly open.

"Hey, Venture, just wanted to let you know that--," I stopped and froze.

The water was running in their shower and Venture was still in their part of the bedroom, removing their shirt. I suspected they had a built body with them carrying around that giant ass drill. But I wasn't expecting to see top surgery scars turned into flame tattoos, resembling the one on their neck.

"I am so sorry!" I shielded my eyes.

"Whoa! Hey," Venture said. "Sorry about that, Y/N. You're good to look now."

"I-I'll see you in the cafeteria," I backed out of their room and closed the door.

I briskly walked towards the cafeteria, trying to calm down my racing heart and the embarrassment. I grabbed dinner that was being served and sat down at a table, just staring at my food. Footsteps approached me and Venture sat in front of me.

"Y/N, are you OK?"

"I-I am so sorry, Sloane," I said. I couldn't bring myself to face them.

"Hey, no worries, alright?" their voice was soft and sincere. "Can we talk about this?"

"Can we talk in your room?"

"Yeah."

Dinner was a bit awkward, but after we finished, we headed back to their room. I sat down on their desk chair while they sat on the edge of their bed, facing me.

"I-I did not mean to walk in on you while you were getting changed. I thought you were in the shower."

"I thought I had closed the door. It's not your fault," they said reassuringly. 

I shook my head, "I should have knocked."

"Y/N," they spoke. "I-I should have told you beforehand."

"I just thought you were non-binary."

Venture shook their head, "Nope. Trans, too."

Their expression fell as those words came from their mouth.

"It won't change anything between us," I said.

Their eyes picked up and found mine, a hopeful shine to them.

"It won't?"

"No. Not at all."

A smile crawled onto their lips, revealing their perfect smile. I stood up and walked over to them, pulling them into a hug.

"Thank you, Y/N," their tense body relaxed as I held them.

"You're welcome, Sloane."

[notquitequelled]

nothing's wrong-- i'm just a STEM student...

[i rarely see stem rep-- so here’s PART TWO! (find part one here) the extended edition of ‘stoners in stem’ highlighting the parts of this life that i find myself loving ;p

Thinking of doing sectionals (Physics, Environmental Studies, Mechanics, Entomology, etc.), so if there are any suggestions you'd like to highlight, plz tag or comment !!]

TAG YOURSELF !! I LOVE SEEING WHAT YALL GET UP TO !!

slightly concerned glances being shared between even the worst of acquaintances when your mentor drops some crazy lore surrounding how they entered their field(s)

good god. the apple-cider vinegar and dish soap gnat traps. honey alternatives decidedly never cross anyone's mind (nor the threshold of the lab for that matter)

walking the fine line between the Ridiculous and the Logical during data analysis like the two aren't twin kings of ruin

noncommital shrugs when asked anything about your preferred diet or eating habits

writing exclusively with pen, or exclusively with pencil. feeling borderline disgusted having to use the other when you forget your own

'Why do you care?' 'Why don't you??'

Every documentary you watch absolutely changing your life and challenging your worldview

Either hanging onto your textbooks like a lifeline or forgetting about them as they gather dust under your bed. maybe you never bought them at all-- pirated PDFs littering your desktop

anything in jars being considered decor (snakes, regurgitated bones, praying mantis egg cases)

seeing the slant of fences, trees, and lamp posts-- thinking of all the wind and weather that's passed along the same path you have

TREEHUGGER !!! HA HA

the clean quiet that hangs over the linoleum early in the morning; the warmth is not so subtle now that you've rolled up your sleeves.

teaching everyone around you how to bypass PAY FOR ARTICLES because knowledge should always be F[ree]INED [inspect, gear, disable java]

having to just sit by n watch while someone pointedly ignores your input, and a totally avoidable incident (that could have totally been avoided) is not, in fact, avoided

dealing with the consequences of that incident for the rest of the experiment/project

blank stare, lips in a placatingly firm line as you nod along with the stern talking-to you're being given. their words going in one ear and out the other because you're already thinking through another way under admin's nose

whaaaaat ? how'd those locally indigenous species just pop up everywhere overnight, ha ha ? wow nature is crazyyy

digging through public records for one reason, only to uncover an entirely different can of worms about the institution you frequent

digging in the literal dirt and uncovering literal worms lol amirite guys

'Please remember that this is just a prototype and that i'm it's in a very fragile state right now.'

going crazy trying to figure out what a specific testing company uses in their chemical compounds, because good fucking god how are you supposed to cite the evidence if you can't even label what it is?

a disastrous experiment being abandoned like Chernobyl once determined beyond salvation-- everyone curious to see how it'll develop and fester when left on its own

'life imitates art,' you think, as you finally recognize one of your unnecessarily complicated formulas being represented in your daily life

often being so bad at the thing you love that you can't do anything about it but laugh

staring for so long at something during a lecture that white begins to leech into your vision. you should probably blink a few times so people don't begin to suspect you're a reptile (even more than they already do)

'Don't.. don't look at me like that...' [speaking to a(n) (INSERT NAME OF LITTLE CRITTER HERE) you had to gently move onto a little scale to collect data]

honing in on where your talents in your field lie; the disappointment in finding your limits that turns to indifference when you remember you're still phenomenal at a million other things you enjoy

'i want to study you like a bug.'

thinly concealed irritation masked by a patient smile and a small 'mhm' when someone tries to explain your life's purpose TO you (ten dollars says they're wrong about it, too)

'and you want me to run this... on a full moon?' 'don't start with that shit again.'

yer disgust is lookin' a lot like morbid curiosity these days...

a lot of your scientific conclusions being discerned by common sense ('Please just use your cognitive functions, you guys...')

a clean earth sciences lab floor.. my white whale...

the small (increasingly large) pile of recyclable material that's waiting to be torn apart or filled with soil and plants; it topples over when people walk past, but no one can bring themselves to throw any away

'all this only cost me like... $270. which is crazy given that these're the real fuckin' deal with solid steel reinforcements.' 'man...this shit is so gonna blow down.'

leaning into the obscure, instead of away from it out of habit; seeing its effect in your daily life and work

all the plastic utensils in the dining area being stolen for diagrams, leaving behind only the reusable metalware. this is unexpectedly admirable of the engineers, if only to those who care about the inadvertent environmentalism

taking things apart to see how they work-- having very little planned on how to put it back together

'I don't know what you want me to do about that, you created it.' 'Not on purpose!'

downloading photomath during testing season. your doubt being palpable over your (in)ability to solve simple equations

carrying hand lotion everywhere you go because of how often your work has you washing your hands; colleagues and peers holding their hands out like beggars in a Mel Brooks film ('lotion... dollop of lotion for the poor D:')

borrowing chemical-grade goggles from the lab before going out to protest; supervisors giving you dubious thumbs ups while they 'accidentally' leave the key to the goggle sanitation station right by the cabinet..

'Now that you've poured your blood, sweat, tears, and other secretions into this project-- decide if you want to take it home to maintain, or have it eradicated.'

utilizing the public library, but having to double-check the internet before citing anything from the books you pour over because your city is more concerned with the way the building looks than the content it supplies

'The Martian,' both the book and the movie ... Mark Watney you will always be famous,,

'Why are you taking so many difficult classes at once?' 'My entire degree is difficult classes.'

carrying a small journal everywhere in an attempt to organize your thoughts, tasks, and reminders (you've never looked back on a single you've written, but you like to think it at least helps in the moment)

being torn between the scientific evidence that supports getting eight hours of sleep and your own hubris. you can stay up it's fine. it'll be fine.

you're not fine but at least the lab counters feel so nice against the side of your face

WHAT THE FUCK IS EVEN A KILOGRAM 🦅🦅🦅‼??!!!!!

having no idea where your degree will take you, giving everyone who asks a different vague answer

hands being littered with cuts and burns; not being able to stop yourself from touching even at the worst of times

geeking out over carbon sensors and ammonia regulators your supervisor managed to convince the department to splurge on (nothing provided by them will enter your lab for another three semesters)

being one of the most prepared people ever when it comes to disaster prep; this includes zombies

'this was not.. our intended result... someone get the shovel.'

pettiness infiltrating your daily life in the form of utilizing your talents; coding programs and drawing up diagrams and running tests just to prove someone wrong (or just to fuck with them)

studying with your liberal arts friends; both of you staring at your respective incomprehensible lines of symbols and words that neither of you have the brainpower to comprehend. most of the lights are off and the library closes in ten minutes, but you know the night staff and they've learned to keep their distance until absolutely necessary.

[procrastinatesdoodles]

I wanna draw gore sitting on a fallen tree next to a DB digging in the dirt. Museum curator DB on their hands and knees, excitedly showing Gore a fossilized clam or cool rock or something and him going "that's cool, blood!" Rarely, DB will close Gore's hand around something, a stone or tooth, and Gore keeps eVERY ONE in his pocket as a good luck charm. Gore sitting on the edge of a tide pool and looking at every tiny crab and little critter DB brings to him.

No one talks about LOTD and Gore, I think he would be very tickled following along Remi and DB for ancient pots and things. He keeps watch while they dig around in the mud and rubble.

Then one day they pop by the museum in person, and he finally gets to see all of the work they've put into gathering all these things, displayed all over the walls... and he'd be in awe. He'd remember the scholars he would listen to as a child, and DB would nudge him lightly and tell him HE got to be a part of this, he helped them pull all this together.

Just... Gore, yknow? Love that fella.

[ghostat7am]

"Care for a bug?"

Trying to get more comfortable showing my other Crygors since I actually have eight of them but Diverged is the most beloved. So introducing the Crygor I'm the most self conscious of DKJJGN

Meet Dr. Kilrait and his critters Selene and Mauve! They're actually much bigger and tower over Kilrait, just wanted to draw them little and small

(you can see the decrease in quality as I became more and more self conscious about them SGKGH)

This au everyone is assigned a creature that people deem as scary or undesirable. Crygor (named Kilrait) is a snake, Orbulon (named Selene) is a mosquito and Mike (named Mauve) is a tarantula. It doesn't really have a story, it's mainly a series of bizarre and horror-inspired scenarios. But there is some backstory

(Character descriptions + basic backstories. CW for near death mentions & mistreatment/implied ab*se for Selene)

Dr. Kilrait (he/him - name pending) is this world's Crygor, based off a Malayan Krait, he's a happy go lucky and affectionate doctor who specialises in surgery and entomology. He cares for his patients amazingly and has extraordinary talents, he aims to change the future of humanity and make the world a better place.

However, he's hiding something underneath- he was born with the inability to feel pain or fear, attempting to change his own biology to the point of obsession. In attempt to gain these feelings, he has begun experiments where he puts healthy and consenting participants into near death situations to monitor and try to mimic their reactions. He truly has no ill intent and makes sure these patients are completely safe during & after these tests, paying for treatment for any mental trauma they may recieve from such tests- he just feels incomplete and wrong without feeling these "truly human" emotions and he'll do anything to change it, even if it means tearing his life to shreds to achieve it.

Mauve (he/him) is Dr. Kilrait's mechanical Metallic Blue Tarantula son and this world's Mike, created to ease the ever-growing internal isolation and loneliness his creator suffers from. Typically very cynical and a skeptic, but aids his father without question. Trusts his dad's every word with no further thought or hesitation since he is Mauve's only window to human society. He may seem cold, but truly he's also quite loving like his father- however he's far less doting, Kilrait is extremely doting towards anyone he goes attached to but especially Mauve. He's all Kilrait has...

A few years ago, Mauve offered himself as a test subject to ensure the equipment for Kilrait's fear tests were safe for human. Everything was going well until something malfunctioned and almost ended the robot, this was the closest Kilrait has felt true terror as he cradled his son's injured body. He is physically okay, but it has left a mental scar on them both - causing Kilrait to only become more protective.

Selene (they/them) is Mauve's spouse and this world's Orbulon, based off a mosquito, they are very snide and vindictive. Suffering from extreme trust issues due to past mistreatment and pain, taught to be a vampire and drain others of their life (literally and emotionally/mentally) - but their cruel nature encases a gentle and affectionate soul, Mauve is slowly cracking away at their shell so they can finally be themselves again without paranoia.

After being left to rot by one they considered to be their true love, Selene decided to close themselves off to never suffer like that again, turning to tormenting others to ease their unpleasant feelings and began working in shady business in disguises. One night, Selene encountered Mauve while attempting to dig dirt up on Kilrait for a paying client, attempting to scare information out of the spider- they were only met with lighthearted amusement and friendly gestures, catching Selene completely off guard. It turned into a pleasant conversation between them and Selene decided to not ruin Kilrait's life for Mauve's sake. Afterwards, they kept meeting up and eventually fell in love as Mauve gently lowered their walls.

[lycantherous]

Hi hello! I hope you're doing well :) I stumbled across your post about tarantula husbandry, and I was wondering, as someone interested in getting a tarantula, would you be willing to share some tips for a beginner? I've done some research and know some of the basics, and I've found a local breeder that breeds Chilean rose tarantulas

Yes!! First - I reccomend Tom's big spiders. In prep for, and just after getting my rosy, I listened to his podcast whenever i was driving. He also does youtube vids.

I've never worked with slings and just only recently got my first juvie.

My spider molted just after I got her. I was prepared but it was still scary and I def googled "do spiders die upsidown" just to reeeaally make sure.

I just rehoused her into a smaller enclosure where the top isnt a screen but one sheet of stamped metal - I'm preeety sure without the overlapping wires she wont get her toes stuck. I first housed her in a 20 long with a regular screen lid so just fitted a piece of cardboard with vent holes on the inside of the lid. I knew itd be temp so I didnt mind ugly.

You wont need to add extra humidity or heat. Room temp is great, as long as it doesnt drop below 60°f for too long. Extra heat will dry out ur spider dangerously fast and misting/soaking the substrate promotes bacterial and mold growth.

Good tarantula enclosures will have side ventilation, you want the air to move through the tank rather than evaporate out the top. This is more important with species that you do want to keep more humid without risking nastiness.

Put in a water bowl! Source of humidity that's easy to clean and your spider can go over and drink from it. They wont drown, I had a huuge dog sized bowl (used to be snake bowl) in her last encloser and I'd watch her climb up and lean over and start drinking. She put some of her legs "in" the water for support. Their little feets are water repellent so it was really her floating on the surface.

So no drowning spiders but if ur lucky you might see a floating spider!

My rosy likes to climb so her enclosure is filled about 2/3rds substrate. Shes around 6" so I left about 5" of wall to climb. They dont take falls well. Honestly shed be safe with 7" but in her last enclosure she dug out a corner so I wanted to give her more medium to play in and dig.

In the snake tank I had her on cocofiber which was great but didnt hold its shape. I bought an expensive bag of arid pet dirt at my local reptiles/exotics shop for her to burrow because I dont personally trust plant dirt to not have possible fertilizer or pesticide contamination.

Both fertilizer and any sort of pesticide will kill your pet. This includes any topical flea medication that people use on their dogs. Bleach will kill your pet, these guys are sensitive to chemicals. I use watered down vinegar and make sure to rinse really well if I need to clean something. Otherwise a damp cloth is best for spot cleaning.

An adult sized t can live very happily on a handful of crickets a month and smaller spiders on smaller meals. I want to overfeed mine because the manager of the reptile store is so wonderful and loud and gay and has a jurassic park car and I wanna loiter 😔

Try and throw in some cork bark and decorative plants and moss in there. You want to make the floor not flat, layered objects help make a lot of pockets and more vertical space and your t will feel safer and will have options to choose from when making their little home base

A lot of people never hold their Ts like how fish ppl mostly dont hold or pet their fish. This is because when they fall they pop and if they bite (whether for defense or the spider is trying to hang on to ur slippery monkey arm) your first reaction is to fling the poor critter.

Contact with my animals is super important for me personally so I'll have them walk across my hands in their enclosure. My coworker would handle hers on the floor in a room that it wasnt easy for her t's to find a spot to hide if they bolted.

I love talking about animal husbandry so much I hope these are at least a good list of stuff to learn more about

[derg-taeda]

This morning I performed a sacred rite. One that has possible existed for as long as civilization and been traced back 78 to 100 thousand years. It was a burial. I buried a local neighborhood stray that apparently chose to take its last breaths in my backyard. There’s something quieting about digging a hole in the early sun beneath a maple tree and placing a limp body in the earth. His paws were cold and the fur on them was wet. Was he running in the dewy grass? He didn’t smell yet. His fur was soft, nose cold and damp, ears ghostly pale, and eyes wide. They were still slightly damp, but they did not close when I gently touched them. 

I am not sure how far he was gone; his body was soft and flexible, but his anus seemed to be hosting some new visitors. According to google, maggots take up residence as early as 24 hours after death, which is also the time rigor mortis can end. When I lifted him, I was confused, the side he was laying on felt warm, or at least warmer than the rest of him. I think this was just an illusion put on by the insulating effect of a furry body half-shielded from the 48-degree morning.

The soil was brown and damp. New and rich in places, thick and grainy after the tree roots. I got perhaps a foot or more down, all the while questioning how deep a grave even needs to be. I carried him in my bare hands over to the hole, kneeled and gently set him in. It almost seemed a shame for his lovely gray and brown stripes to be covered with mud and earth. But I remember soil is sacred and life giving. He lived and loved this land -yes even my land- so to it he should return. 

There are a lot of strays, and neighborhood cats where I live. It’s largely a community of retirees and low-income housing. Many of the elderly here (as anywhere) take the time to offer food and water to the roaming kitties. I don’t blame them, though it can get old seeing so many roving critters. There’s a soft spot in my heart for my 99-year-old neighbor directly across from me who cares for about 3 or 4 including two Garfield look-alikes. Since buying this land and moving here it’s almost felt as if I am only borrowing the land from the cats. The elderly woman who lived -and likely died- in this house wasn’t terribly active outside and so her largely undisturbed grass and trees provided new horizons for them. Once I moved in, I found eyes regularly peaking down from the branches above. Last summer I let the backyard grow wild for many months and apparently this provided prime habitat for fieldmice, and so prime playground for neighborhood cats.

I had often seen this tabby cat sneaking buy, and I shooed him and his mini-me away. Now I felt a little guilt for not allowing some love, even though his kind wreak havoc on the local mice and native birds. I suppose at least he can find his peace here now. I scooped the soft dirt up in my hands and arms and swept it over onto him. Softly, soundlessly he was covered over by living earth. Layer after layer until I returned the roughhewn square of Dicanthelium root mat I cut with my spade. It should rain soon; that will help the dirt settle and the plants recover. Perhaps he will become the ground and feed dandelions.

[snufflepup]

I imagine if you were to explode you'd pop out confetti or something! They were, I had to wear gloves just so their little claws wouldn't dig into me. There were also raccoons and other animals as the place dealt with more wild/exotic animals. It was cool and definitely a learning moment. Same here! Well, one time I did see a racoon with its babies crawl up a tree! So cute. Oh, and one time I saw a dead opossum on the ground. It was so sad, the poor little guy but I hope he lived a happy little life. Opossums sadly don't live long, they get a bad rap for no reason! Those were the only times I've seen animals like that in my town. I also saw two deer once and a fox came right up to my house! Nature is pretty cool. So, you might have some interesting critters around, they just like to hide. 𖹭

It wasn't too challenging, most of it was common sense stuff like— don't drink acid. Some of it was pretty interesting, especially since they had short videos too. But yeah, almost five hours of nothing but doing that and still didn't finish. The place I work closes pretty early though, around 4 PM.

Of course! True, if they're so comfortable saying that stuff to random people they are scum in my eyes. Saying that to someone who has done little wrong is so low in my eyes, especially with messages that pathetic. They must have some grudge against yanderes for some reason, why they can't just ignore it? I'm not sure myself but some people just have a lot of hate and nothing better to do than to waste their time. Mhm, definitely. I'm sure blocking whoever it is can help stop it and eventually they give up and lose the fun out of it.

Ohh, okay then! Hehe, if anything surprising happens I'll try to let you know.

— 🐇

wow gasp !!! How did you find out my secret ? /silly

djdhvsj They all sounds so cute !!! I think learnjng about animals is really cool, I like them a lot ^–^ Do they ? Why do people dislike them ? I thought they were pretty cool ! We see a lot of dead animals, more so when in the car. . . I think it's because there are so many forest areas around here I live that are also right next to sometimes very busy roads (◞ ⸝⸝ ◟ ) We don't get raccoons here, but I love them ! I have a build a bear of one !! Did you really ? aaa I think I really would explode if I saw that ! There are a lot of foxes and deer where I live, theres a lot of like forest-y and grassy areas, I work outside and where I work has two big like woodland parts right on it's sides and an even bigger field with more trees and lots of grass, and we see things like that all the time ! For a good while we kept seeing a baby fox, as well as a big fox !! It came pretty close sometimes, but we even saw them doing their jump thing !! We also see a lot of deer as well, usually a couple all at the same time, but they're really cute ! We fet a lot of wild bunnies as well. . . Although, you can get those all over where I live ! They're the animals that have came the closest, other than like the ones we're taking care of, but I love them all, I always get really excited whenever I see them ! Oh, we fet moles too ! I've never actually seen one, but I've seen it digging the holes and pushing the dirt up ! aaaa It's so cool they came right up to your house, I've only seen a fox once around like my house area last winter !

That's good then, hopefully that makes the tests easier ! I feel like when I learn things I like watching videos like that I feel like it helps me understand it better, depending on what it is, I suppose !! I think . If I was you in that situation I would go a little crazy, five hours and still not done would probably kill me . /a little dram

I think so too, I don't really like when people are mean for no reason ( I mean . obviously . but I hope you can understand me ! ) I don't really understand why some people feel the need to like go out of their way to harrass something or someone they don't like. . . When I don't like stuff I just don't look at it, or whatever dpending on the situation but ! Not that I think it's good to be hateful either, but can't they just . keep it to theirself ? Yes !! I think so as well !

yay ! Thank you, thank you !! ( ＞∇＜)

[taimio]

Unleash Your Inner Gardener: Unveiling the Secrets to Cultivate Luscious Chiogia Beets!

"Embrace the beauty of gardening by cultivating the stunning and delightful Chiogia Beets. Whether you're a novice green thumb looking to broaden your garden variety or a seasoned gardener enamored with these visually striking veggies, you'll find our detailed guide on how to grow Chiogia Beets incredibly helpful. Dig into the specifics of soil preference, sunlight requirement, watering regimen, and care tips to ensure your Chiogia Beet growth is bountiful. Perfectly at home in a variety of climates and possessing a unique taste that adds depth to numerous dishes, Chiogia Beets are certainly worth your gardening effort. So let's delve into Chiogia Beet gardening and elevate your horticultural passion to a whole new level. This article is set to enrich your gardening knowledge and hopefully also your dinner table." How Do You Grow Chioggia Beets? So, you want to join the wonderful world of beet growing? Well, my friend, you've come to the right place. I'm here to share with you my *secrets* on how to successfully grow the beautiful and delicious Chioggia beets. Trust me, I've had my fair share of triumphs and failures in the garden, so let me guide you through this beet-growing adventure. First things first, let's talk about choosing the perfect spot for your Chioggia beets. These vibrant root vegetables thrive in full sun, so find a sunny spot in your garden that gets at least six hours of direct sunlight each day. Avoid shady areas or places with poor drainage — beets like their feet dry! Now, let's get our hands dirty. Start by preparing the soil. Beets prefer loose, well-draining soil enriched with organic matter. I like to mix in some compost to give my beets a little extra love. Before planting, remove any stones or debris from the soil, ensuring a smooth bed for your beet seeds. When it comes to sowing the seeds, the key is to *not* overcrowd them. Space each seed about 2 inches apart, gently pressing them half an inch into the soil. If you're planting in rows, keep them around 12 inches apart to give your beets enough room to grow those beautiful and distinctive rings. Now, here's a little trick to help your Chioggia beets thrive. Once the seedlings reach about 2 inches in height, thin them out by removing some of the plants. It might feel counterintuitive to remove perfectly healthy plants, but trust me, this will give the remaining beets the space they need to develop into plump and succulent wonders. Watering is crucial for growing juicy beets, but be careful not to overdo it. Aim to keep the soil consistently moist, but avoid waterlogging. I've made the mistake of drowning my beets in the past, and let me tell you, they weren't too pleased. Water deeply once a week, and adjust accordingly based on rainfall and soil moisture levels. Now, let's talk about pests. Those sneaky critters can wreak havoc on your precious Chioggia beets, but fear not! There are simple and natural ways to keep them at bay. Companion planting with aromatic herbs like *basil* or *mint* can deter those pesky insects. Alternatively, you can create a homemade insecticidal soap using gentle dish soap and water to spray on your plants. Harvesting time has finally arrived! So, how do you know when your Chioggia beets are ready to be plucked from the ground? Keep an eye on the leafy greens above the soil — they'll give you a hint. Once the greens reach around 4 inches tall, you can start gently digging around the base of the beet to check its size. If they're about 2-3 inches in diameter, it's time to harvest and revel in the beauty of those mesmerizing red and white rings. Now that you're armed with the knowledge to grow Chioggia beets, it's time to put it into action. Remember, growing your own food is a journey full of surprises, setbacks, and ultimately, delicious rewards. So, get out there, dig in the dirt, and let the magic unfold! Learn more about gardening with Taim.io!

[cozycryptidcorner]

Étienne the Fae, Part One of Two

This was commissioned by the illustrious and fantastical @monsterfolkandfiction​! Thank you so much, and I hope that everyone enjoys this story as well. A second part is being drafted now.

tw: disordered eating, manipulative and abusive mother

You shouldn’t have gone into your grandfather’s basement.

You shouldn’t have gone into your grandfather’s basement. .

There were voices. Lots of voices, and you thought that a show of brilliance might grant your grandfather’s coveted attention above your cousins’. The door was unlocked, how could you not sneak a peek down the forbidden stairwell? So you crept down, hand on the rail for safety, eyes wide in the hopes of spotting something.

You remember how to summon him. Always. You’ve blocked out everything else about him, but you always remember how to call him back, even if you never will. Only in an emergency, you would always think, glaring at your mark as though he can see you through the mottled purple flesh.

You wipe a bit of sweat from your face, chewing on your lower lip as you glance over your shoulder at the ticking clock—almost midnight. The little vagrant who caused the muddy disaster you’re cleaning is asleep already, hand clutching her rag still as she lays limp on the wooden floor.

Maria is a good kid. Troubled, yes, a mischief-maker for sure, but she’s good. She’s just the type who needs a little guidance, that’s all. You didn’t bother trying to wake her back up, mostly because you know it would do no good, and honestly, it’s probably easier to finish the mess yourself without dealing with a cranky, tired child. Besides, it’s not that big of a deal, it’s not like she hasn’t managed to clean up her messes before.

Just a little bit, you tell yourself as you scrub the rest of the mud from the floor,she’s lost.

It doesn’t take you much longer to finish up the mud, the water in the bucket sloshing an earthy brown the more you pollute it with the dirt slurry on your rag. None of the nuns have walked by the entrance, which is good, because you don’t exactly want to face them. You wouldn’t even have to come up with an explanation, they’ll know, especially the head of the abbey. The last thing you’d want is for Maria to be whipped with that reedy switch some of the nuns carry around to punish unruly children.

After dumping out the bucket of dirt, you wipe your sweaty palms on your apron, letting out a bated breath. The moon has already sunk behind the hills, the night only lit by the dim candles you managed to steal out from the servant’s noses. While one might think that a place of worship would have plenty of access to such supplies, it seems like everything is scarce in the days where the darkness licks and poisons like a snake.

“Are you alright, young sister?”

Though you jump, it’s only Sister Anya, a soft, young-looking nun looking down at you with the utmost concern.

Her pale hair is highlighted by the candlelight in the most martyr-like way that you feel the urge to fall on your knees and plead for her to pray for you. Everything about her is ethereal, almost almost horrendously beautiful, blue eyes so deep and dark your lungs fill with water as though drowning when you look at her.

Trying to steady yourself, you place a hand on the wooden bannister, then nod, shakily.

She glances at the bucket you’re holding, and her gaze softens considerably. “Were the children giving you a difficult time today?”

Since you know Anya isn’t one of the nuns who believe that pain is the path to godliness, so you’re more willing to express any frustrations you might have with her. So you shrug, then roll your eyes, trying to force your tongue to work but settle for gestures instead.

Sister Anya places a hand on your shoulder sympathetic gesture.” Your nerves are high today, hm?”

Thankful you don’t have to bother explaining yourself, verbally or through a thousand of different hand positions, you nod.

Sister Anya lets out a gentle sigh. “I’m so sorry, dove, the children ought to know not to press against your patience.”

Again, you shrug, walking over to the door in order to dump the muddied bucket, before passing it to her waiting hands.

“Again,” Sister Anya says softly, “I know that you’re not obligated to be here, but you know that the children love you. Even if they aren’t always so well behaved.”

You nod in acknowledgement, having had this conversation with her before. No matter the chaos the orphanage children might instil during sunlight, you always return, knowing that the kids truly mean well at the end of the day. Memories of blood bubble in your throat, your empathy digging too deeply in your past that you feel a sense of fear.

Quickly, you bid your leave, knowing that you should have long been back in your bed. God, if your mother finds out you’ve been loitering this late-

“Oh,” Sister Anya concedes, “of course, should I walk you back?”

Quickly, you shake your head, not wishing that she put herself at risk for your own sake. After once more asking over your assuredness, Sister Anya concedes, though her concern is not at all lacking. You know that the woods host a very numerous amount of creatures, though none have dared to ever bother you. The contrast has been so stark against the countless first-hand stories than you’ve heard that you’ve almost convinced yourself that you’re invisible to their otherworldly eyes, although you still hold healthy regard for what you might not understand.

Still, on the way back, all the negative attention you might receive is brief and fleeting, most crackling within the woods retreating as though you were about to set fire to the numerous dried foliage of the coming winter. Besides, your family estate is alarmingly close, you should be within the safety of its walls shortly after embarking, the sprites and critters almost obnoxiously ignoring your presence. Ever since… the incident, you haven’t needed to take the same precautions as the rest of your peers, and thus you manage to get yourself home earlier than someone might have estimated.

There is a lot to be happy about your life, you suppose, staring blankly up at the family portrait up on the wall. Happy mother. Happy father. Their absolute disgrace of an eldest child, which is you, unfortunately. You know that there are children in that abbey who would kill to have the same privileges you do, warm bed, food whenever you need, and water that doesn’t have a rusty undertaste of dirt, so you try not to feel… ungrateful.

You lick your lips, peeking out from the hall to check for anyone making their rounds, then quickly and quietly walk by the window towards your room. It’s late, so no one should be up, but that’s never stopped your mother when she’s in one of her worse moods, and just as you predicted, you hear her rapidly approach. Now entering panic mode, you move twice as quickly, slipping into your room and shutting the door quietly behind you.

Your muscles are stiff, fingers shaking, as you desperately try to pull the pins in your hair that kept everything marginally in place as you worked, knowing that you should be at least in your nightgown at this time. The scent of roses is thick, putrid, and always the choice of perfume for your mother. You suppose that it’s nice that you can at least smell her before she fully arrives, but now you can hardly look at those flowers without feeling a pinch of anxiety flowing through your chest.

The door wrenches open, your mother neither gentle nor willing to give you those extra precious moments where you might hide something. Your brush is in hand, and you are in the process of working through the knots that had accumulated through the day, but by the look of her face in the candlelight, your supposed innocence will be deeply in question.

“Where have you been?” Her voice is like nails on a chalkboard, it’s all you can do to not wince when she speaks.

I was at the orphanage, mother. You can’t even look her in the eye.

“I don’t remember giving you permission to work among those pathetic waifs, girl.”

Mother doesn’t even bother with your name, especially when she’s angry. And, judging by the tone of her voice, she’s incensed by something, only you don’t even know what it is she’s accusing you of, so you can’t even offer up any meagre defences.

“Did I say you were allowed to stay until the night turns to morning? What kind of a reputation are you trying to gain, you stupid, ungrateful child?”

The only ‘men’ in that orphanage are younger than eleven, but you know that this outburst isn’t at all over your chastity.

She raises her hand, and you flinch, but the strike doesn’t come this time. Instead, she walks up behind you, snagging the brush out of your hand and begins an aggressive grooming routine. “You should be grateful for what I give you and stop trying my patience. Everything I do for you is always met with silence, do you think the Bennet girls treat their poor mother like this? Or has the devil cursed me with you?”

You know that any attempt to escape her gnarled, rough fingers would be met with even more violence, so you sit still, digging your fingernails into the cushion of your chair. Everything in your body is on edge, your jaw is tight, your stomach still, all your muscles frozen in place to keep from crying out as the onslaught of your scalp continues. Silently resigned, you stare at yourself in the mirror, hating everything you see in the reflective glass.

“You would think that the gods would give me a child who shows a modicum of mercy for her poor mother, but no, all I get is this pathetic excuse of a lady. I know everyone goes behind my back and talks about what a joke you are, and yet you don’t even care enough about the person who put you into this world to even care enough to change.”

Your throat is dry, your eyes are not. Stubbornly, though, you refuse to give her tears, because she’ll only think that crying is a method of trying to guilt her into stopping. So you’re quiet, and you accept the onslaught of verbal terror, trying to let it all wash over you like water running over stones in a river.

“I should have never let you stay that summer with your grandfather, he put in all the wrong ideas in your head. And where did that get him, anyway? In a casket, six feet under.” Eventually, she tires herself out, as she always does. As she places the brushes back on the vanity, she notices the little jar of candies you like to keep around for both yourself and your younger siblings. Her brow furrows, and she takes it, “you don’t need to eat more than you already do.”

You don’t turn to watch her leave, letting the dull slamming of the door speak for itself. Once you’re certain she’s not going to come back for another round, you reach up and start braiding your hair for the night, fingers separating the strands and weaving them together. A strange sort of numbness takes over your body, a tugging emptiness draining your chest and veins of any life. When you lay your head on the pillow, there’s dampness on your cheek that you hadn’t noticed prior.

Luckily for you, in the morning, you are left to be ignored once more. You suppose that you are grateful that your mother only seeks you out when she is angry because that offers more freedom to do as you please when she isn’t. A strange thing to enjoy, but you are still willing to count your blessings nonetheless.

Every day goes by more or less the same. You pretend to be a fancy lady for the minimum amount of time, though thankfully you’re so often ignored you can slip away and head down to the orphanage. You have no official schedule of volunteering, since some days your mother is more persistently present than others, but the nuns are thankful for your appearance more or less.

And you tell yourself that you’re satisfied with everything. It’s a lie, and you know it’s a lie, but the moment you begin to move past that safe little untruth, you think your world will fall apart. So you wait. And you watch. And you’re silent.

The day your mother is uncharacteristically cheerful is the day you feel genuine fear.

She’s humming while going over the cook’s menu ideas. Humming. And she requested to see you… which… is rather unusual. As you walk in, you try to peek over her shoulder, though she shifts the papers ever so slightly out of your sight, offering a warning grunt in your direction. Still unsure of where she might be taking this nonexistent conversation, you take your book and sit on the other side of the table, trying to keep calm.

“There’s going to be a wedding,” she says in a sing-songy voice.

Normally, when your peers are wed off, she takes it like a personal attack, as though each girl is mocking your family by daring to marry before you. Now you’re even more nervous, trying to think over which of your siblings could be of marrying age. Surely they haven’t roped any poor waif into marrying your idiot brother, right?

“Tell me what colors you think would be appropriate for a spring ceremony,” she says, so dreamily it shakes you to your core.

You open your mouth, but your chest is so constricted by fear that it can’t possibly push air through your throat. Instead, you just look down and shrug, trying to steady yourself as you sit. God, you’re so hungry. That breakfast never really fills you up, but you never dare try to scavenge for more food in the daytime.

“I didn’t think you would have the good sense to know, anyways,” your mother dismisses your opinion with the wave of her hand. “A light lavender, maybe? Oh, perhaps daisies would be lovely, but that might seem too ‘country…’ or would that be fashionable?”

You nervously let her ramble, wishing you had it in you to just… get up. Leave. Go someplace where you would be alone and lie down. Your body itches to be surrounded by the greenery in the garden, let yourself become one with the earth. Never worrying about the court, about gentlemen of good breeding, or your mother again. She’s taking tea with biscuits, enough food on that platter to share, but you know better than to try to reach your hand over to grasp one.

But fate is a cruel mistress, and your mother even crueler. You don’t have much more warning than the click of your father’s office door as he and an unfamiliar person exit, and adrenaline laces along your veins. You don’t like how your mother looks at him, you don’t like how he looks at you, and you would very much like to no longer be perceived as a physical being. As your mother stands, you follow suit, just out of shock.

“Mr. Andreas,” your mother croons, a shiver of horror running down your spine.

The stranger nods, then glances over you with a critical kind of look, one that makes your insides squirm so uncomfortably you almost vomit.

“We’ve agreed to the terms,” your father says, then nods in your direction. “The wedding will be set in the spring.”

You’re dizzy, all the blood rushing from your head.

To make things worse, your mother is closer, the pungent scent of flowers invading your lungs with such a pervasive efficiency you can’t even breathe. She’s holding your hand, squeezing your pulse so tightly you know the blood is pooling out between her fingertips, and says, “say hello to your fiance, darling. Don’t be rude.”

It feels like a blink. A quick moment of absolutely nothing, your soul floating up above you like a spectre, and then you’re back. And in bed.

It’s dark outside, and a candle faithfully burns on the table by your bed. Leaning over, you blow it out, knowing that someone not nearly as blessed as you could use the precious light more. Your window rattles, a black shape writhing and clicking against the glass, but it doesn’t break through.

Your head feels empty, a thick, persistent kind of nothingness frying the different pathways to thought. Something important happened, something…. something you should be wary of, but it takes you quite a long time to remember the day’s events until a glimpse of that man’s smarmy face surfaces.

Engaged.

The word makes you gag, but there’s nothing in your stomach to retch. You have no clear idea of how long you’ve been in bed, but as you place your feet on the cold ground, a wave of empty dizziness fizzles through your head. It’s a hungry kind of dizziness, one where your body is at its last leg trying to keep itself upright.

There’s a hot, white pinching in your chest as you rise to a hand, legs and arms shaking like a leaf in a storm. Kitchen, you have to get to the kitchen, your vision blurry and faint. Still, you do your best to keep yourself together as you silently slip out of your room.

The halls are eerily silent, candlelight keeping the night’s terrors at bay. Servants occasionally make rounds to make sure the light doesn’t snuff itself out, but you’ve long timed the carefully coordinated efforts. Arms wrapped around your chest, you slowly make your way back to the kitchens, careful to dodge any straggling staff in the halls.

For the most part, the kitchen is rather modestly sized in comparison to the rest of the house, something the servants and cooks gripe about during the wasteful parties your parents throw to uphold some kind of ridiculous facade of class and wealth. But for you, in your occasional midnight snack, it’s just the right size to feel homely, but also with enough books and crannies for you to duck behind if someone unexpected makes a surprise cameo.

But today, it looks like the last person you wanted to see has been anticipating your visit though.

“Really,” your mother says, arms crossed, the steady glare of rage on her brow, “you faint to embarrass me and then, instead of apologizing, the first thing you think to do is to eat more?”

You swallow thickly, knowing you’re about to get an apocalyptic lecture.

“Look at yourself, girl,” your mother makes a wide, gestural sweep over your body, “your obsession with eating is what made you so difficult to marry in the first place. No one wants to marry a whale! And now that you think you’ve landed a man, you can settle back to your old bad habits?”

You shake your head, clammy and afraid.

“Of course not,” she doesn’t raise her voice, not once, and that somehow makes everything worse, “I told you all you needed was to lose those flaps at your waist, but you can’t even adhere to the diet I’ve set you on.”

If you faint again, she’s going to claim you only did so to guilt her, so you hold your dizzying head together with spit and empty determination. There’s a half-eaten loaf of bread covered on the stove, mocking you with its closeness, laughing at your desperation.

“Everything I do for you, and all you give me in return is your spiteful attitude.” She sighs dramatically and shakes her head. “Go back to bed, girl, I can’t even look at you without feeling disgusting. I don’t know how you can live the way you do.”

You don’t. But you accept the out, shakily wobbling back to your room, hearing your mother call out behind you.

“The engagement party is three days away. You know the rules.”

No sneaking food. Of course you do, she doesn’t allow you to forget it. You go back to your room and lay down on the bed, trying to ignore the painful punches in your starving stomach. Breakfasts in the morning. Breakfast in the morning. Breakfast in the morning.

The party is the epitome of everything you hate.

Bright, gaudy, the food so rich and plentiful despite the nearly starving children barely a mile away. Already you’re mentally calculating how much food you can sneak out to the abbey as soon as the night comes to a close, figuring that you might even be able to make two trips if you truly had to. Sister Anya would protest against you moving through the night, but you’ve never had any issues with the sprites.

Folding your hands together, you try to remain present in the moment, but you quickly find your fingernails scratching invisible streaks down your arms, landing on the palm of your hand... to the mark on your wrist. The doctor speculated that it must have been some kind of chemical burn, mostly because there seemed to be no other explanation about it. A toxic liquid spilt onto your wrist when you were wandering somewhere you weren’t supposed to be, and so now you must bear the speculations and the whispers whenever someone new catches a glimpse of the marking.

It’s an odd kind of thing, all angles and thin lines, coalescing in a shape that seems too particular and sharp to be an accidental blob. When you press your thumb down and close your eyes, though, you can see the exact moment you received it, smell the harsh sanitized basement, but somehow catch a whiff of summer lavender.

Could this be your emergency?

Quickly, you try to fill your mind with a thousand other thoughts, flooding your head to the point that scent is once again a distant memory. Everything that followed that day was filled to the brim with misfortune and misery, and you don’t wish to relive it in the slightest. Not until you absolutely have to.

Your mother is right, the duke is only interested in the land your father offers. To her, though, that’s some kind of blessing. For you, however, seated at the table, it feels like the darkest wickedness. Only once does that man glance in your direction, and you can see his nose briefly wrinkle as he silently dresses you down, as though he feels that fucking you would be some kind of burden that he would skip if allowed.

Everything about him fills you up with a strange sense of terror. It’s the way he holds himself, you think, looking over his posture and general facial expression. Tall. High. He might not be the largest man in the room, but he certainly acts the part, stepping over those he doesn’t necessarily deem to be equal.

To your parents though, that’s just a sign of good breeding. Something that you somehow don’t possess, even though ancestry is theoretically squeaky clean. Through your eyelashes, you observe him, lips glued shut with the waxy lipstick smeared against them. You want to crawl out of your skin, melt into the floorboards, fade into the wall, but you’re stuck in place beneath your mother’s critical glare.

Knowing exactly what she might be thinking, you try to mingle, but everyone has long learned that you’re not the type for conversation. Your search for a discussion amounts to you wandering circles around the ballroom, doing your best to seem interested in what’s going on, but ultimately being ignored.

Eventually, you end up back at the table, filled to the brim with foods so decadent and delicious your mouth waters at the scent. Cautiously, you look over your shoulder as you reach down, to find your mother staring at you from a nearby corner. Your hand freezes, and you retract it, almost ashamed.

The mark on your wrist throbs, gently reminding you of a possibility you can allow yourself to have.

Biting down on your tongue, you merely pour yourself some of the lemon flavored water laid out to the side, hoping to fill your stomach if only for a few moments. Everything is too bright, too much, you’re drowning in the absence of everything you could possibly want.

Even though you know your mother will be at her wit’s end, you snag a champagne flute and decide to go back to your room. The bubbles burn as you drink the flute down faster than should be done, retreating back through the crowded hallway. On your way out, you see a servant carrying another tray of alcohol, and you recklessly switch out your empty cup.

Bitterness swells in your throat. You don’t fucking deserve this, you never have. A part of you wants to burn the mansion down and let the sweeping darkness devour the ashes, but you’ve never had the courage or smarts to pull such a feat off. You spot another platter of champagne and make the trade once more.

Just as you begin sipping the brightly flavored alcohol, you bump into someone sturdy. Hard, dark, tall… your fiancé, unfortunately, you notice. Quickly, you lose all confidence you had been building up and instead curtsy out an apology.

“When your father said you were as quiet as a mouse I didn’t think it was possible,” he laughs, almost good naturally, “I didn’t think a woman could be quiet even if her life depended on it.”

The tops of your ears flare.

“But this is a nice surprise, I think it might make up for your other shortcomings.” He waves his hand in your face, as though you are deaf, not mute, then laughs again. “I suppose we’ll see whether or not you can squeal on the wedding night.”

An almost extinct temper raises its ugly head, you’re furious, but above all else, you’re embarrassed. The alcohol makes your anger boil over more, and to add insult to injury, he doesn’t seem to take the hint to stop talking.

“At least you wouldn’t be able to complain. I hate it when women think they deserve to be heard.” And just like that, he abandons you, wandering off towards a group of people you recognize as your neighbors.

Angrily, you drink more of the champagne, going up the stairs and trying to keep yourself calm. But you’re not calm, you’re furious. At yourself, at your parents, and at that babyfaced ass who has the audacity to mock you in the middle of your joint engagement party. By the time you get to your room, your face is hot and boiling with rage, the empty champagne flute mindlessly left on some random surface, and you bury yourself in the bed. You’ve drunk a fat more tonight than you have in years.

You can’t call a servant to help you out of this satin nightmare, not without your mother being informed, so you’re stuck trying to dislocate both your shoulders in order to reach at the strings lacing the top together. Nothing seems to be working, and you are getting more and more frustrated with your progress, each fucking second wasted on your struggles, making you more upset at the overall predicament.

And then, a thought.

Your drunken mind thinks it’s brilliant. The last thread of your sanity warns you that it’s stupid. But both parties involved agree that it would be very, very funny.

Your thumb finds the mark on your wrist.

Call an eternal being forth just to untie your corset? Absolutely ludicrous. Stupid, even. But definitely hilarious. At least, your drunken mind thinks it’s funny. Slowly, you trace the mark around with your indent finger, your eyesight blurry with drink.

Touch the mark. You place two of your fingers against the pulse of your wrist. Recite my name. Three times, unbroken.

It’s not an incredibly complicated ritual. You’ve recited it in your head many times, staring out of your window, tongue making the motions in your mouth. One favor, you get only but one favor, and every single day you’ve had to deal with another one of your mother’s lectures, your father’s criticism, or some other critical motion from most other people in your life, you’ve thought of him.

But now, while drunk, and after the party, it seems like a fine time to bring him forth from the Otherworld. If only to cause a bit of much-needed chaos. You close your eyes, urging your tongue to move, and you say-

“Étienne. Étienne. Étienne.”

Nothing happens. There is an overwhelming silence, one that causes your body to collapse further into the mattress, your brain slowly shutting itself off in a desperate attempt to sleep off the inordinate amount of alcohol that you’ve consumed. Your tongue and mouth are dry, almost as though they were stuffed with towels and cloth, a hazy exhaustion blocking your vision from comprehension.

And you’re asleep.

You don’t exactly know how long you were asleep for, only that you wake up with a throat as dry as the Dark Desert, lips cracked and bleeding, wrist tingling almost painfully like a thousand little pins are piercing into your flesh, though your face is oddly wet. The candle flickers at your side, likely lit by a servant, illuminating red dampness left on your pillow. A headache pinches between your eyes as you try to process those different elements.

“Here,” a smooth, low voice says, a gloved hand offering up a linen handkerchief.

You accept it, then realize who the hand belongs to. Quickly, you scoot yourself back right up to your headboard, spine pressing almost uncomfortably against the heavy wood.

He’s silent for a moment, eyes so dark and blue you feel like they’re sucking you in as though they’re a whirlpool, and you’re adrift in an ocean clinging to a piece of wood. Then he laughs, shockingly youthfully, hand over his mouth as you yank the handkerchief out from his fingers, pushing it up to your nose to catch the continuous drip of blood. Your mouth tastes like hot copper laid out in the sun, and droplets of redstart swimming in your vision.

“My dear,” he says, cocking his head to the side, curiously, “you called me here.”

“No I di-” fuck, the memory of what must have been only a fe hours prior swimming upward in your mind. “Well, I didn’t mean it.”

“Unfortunately whatever your intentions are, I cannot leave until your wish is fulfilled.” Luckily, he doesn’t seem at all annoyed. Only mildly disinterested in what your problems might be.

“Can’t you just go back?” You ask, voice losing its rasp as you swallow a mouthful of blood.

“That’s not how this works,” he says, almost disappointed in your desperate attempts to make him leave.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

“You’re shaking,” He observes, settling on the edge of your bed.

It’s as though the spirit of your mother possesses your body, vomiting out a sentence about your chastity as a lady, “there’s a man in my room, at night, with no chaperone present.”

A perfectly manicured eyebrow pops up. “You know I cannot hurt you.”

“It’s not about you, it’s- it’s about my reputation as a lady-”

The other eyebrow follows suit, and he’s looking at you so sceptically it appears he thinks this is some sort of trick. He reaches over and grabs hold of your hand, drawing your wrist close as to double-check for the mark. “I don’t remember you being such a meek little thing.”

“I was ten the last time we met.” You say, trying to keep your voice even.

“And you bit me, if I remember correctly.” And he smiles, as though the memory of a precocious child is somehow a fond one.

This can’t be happening, you can’t be having this conversation with him. A conversation. Talking. You swallow thickly, raking your nails through your scalp, trying to breathe. “I was only trying to defend myself! You- you ki- you killed-”

“He deserved it,” he says, and you are unfortunately inclined to agree.

You can’t tell if the droplet of liquid running down the side of your cheek is blood or sweat. Taking in a shaking, angry breath, and you stare down at your hands, eyes stinging. Ah, tears, okay. This is fine. Everything is fine.

“Ah, darling, I’ve forgotten myself.” He reaches over, and you flinch, so he quickly retracts his hand. “Let’s try again. What do you want from me?”

You think back to all the tiny, ugly little pinpricks of insults you’ve garnered every goddamn day of your life since the incident. You think about your husband to be, you think about your mother, you think about your long-dead grandfather. Everything hurts. Everything is wrong. Slowly, you close your eyes and breathe, trying to keep yourself together, just for another few moments.

“I’m to be married to a nearby heir,” you say.

He cocks his head.

“I don’t want to be.”

[everlarkficexchange]

Written by: @alliswell21

Title: One of Us

Prompt 145: She moves in with her aunt and uncle when her parents dies in a small town. After suffering through trama, Katniss slowly starts to get better with the help of her family (aunt, uncle, cousin) and the Mellark brothers. But when things starts happening to her and the people around her, it’s revealed that she and almost everyone in the towns are apart of the werewolf pack and that one of the Mellark brothers is her mate. #werewolves [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Rated: G for general audiences.

Tags: Canon Divergent!AU; Modern with a dash of Supernatural; Grief/Mourning; Feeding as a Language of Love.

Note: This is my final submission to this year's EFE challenge! Yay! I really am grateful to @xerxia31 and @javistg for their continued support of this fandom and for hosting once again this event. You are such amazing people, and I’m absolutely honored to be part of a community with people as amazing as you two are! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for keeping EFE alive!

@animekpopxx, thank you too! You feed my muse! And you give me Werewolves!!!!

This story was a bit of rushed job, though, and there’s more of it, I mean... we haven’t seen them turn into wolves yet!!! 🤣 I just didn’t have time to edit the complete fic before the deadline, but if you’d like to read the finished product, keep an eye out for it on AO3. I’m fairly sure the rating will keep, but we will see.

 Kpkpkpk

There’s nothing but the sound of crickets and frogs filling the vast darkness of the night.

It’s another moonless night out here in Panem… or is I like to call it ‘the middle of nowhere’. It’s weird, how dark nights feel here, there’s barely a start peeking tonight, but in a strange way, I like it.

Sitting on my aunt and uncle’s porch to watch the infinite dark ahead while listening to the nocturnal critters it’s about my favorite thing to do… it’s what did used to do when we came here for long summer stays, anyway. He used to say he felt at peace and relaxed, connected with nature. Too bad it took him to be gone, for me to appreciate what he meant by that. So every night I come out here and sit in the steps hugging my knees, staring at nothing but the deep, black night surrounding the cabin, whisking my dad was sitting next to me.

Tonight is different than usual, though. It was raining until recently, and the smell of wet earth is so familiar my chest feels tight and my throat is knotted.

“Petrichor, Katniss,” I mumble the words noiselessly, “is the smell of rain, hun. It smells the same everywhere in the world.”

I lean my chin on my knees, wishing I could go back to feeling numb like when my parents just died. But thinking of the word petrichor, while smelling the thing, is bring forth a plethora feelings and memories I don’t know how to handle.

Dad used to love Scrabble, crossword puzzles and trivia challenges. He tried to get me interested in those games, teaching me words and their meanings, every time he had a chance.

I wish I had been more enthusiastic about learning the darned stuff; it would’ve meant an extra moment spent with Dad, and less regret to feel right now.

An involuntary whine leaves my chest. It hurts to think about it, and not for the first time, I dig my nails into my skin to keep myself rooted in place, and not tear running into the void.

I feel like I’m spiraling out of control, I fear this time something will break in my head and I’ll do something crazy, like scratch my skin away and run wild into the woods, like a beast… but the overwhelming thoughts gets halted when I hear soft noises from out in the distance.

It’s like the crunching of footsteps on the gravel at the mouth of my aunt and uncle’s property. It’s too dark and isolated here, deep into the country. I’ve seen big wildlife roaming around: deer, raccoons, coyotes and even a lynx. But the longer I hear the noises, the more certain I am I’m being stalked by something big and fast.

My heart beats erratically in my chest; every hair in my body stands on point, fear is clawing its way up my chest and into my throat, my eyes feel about to pop from my skull, and then I’m disentangling my knees from my arms, standing up as tall as I can— which isn’t saying much—and then I call into the night, “Who’s there?!”

I hear a faint disturbance of air, and then…

“Good evening, Katniss!”

Slowly, from the shadows, a blonde head pops, eerie for a second. Broad shoulders follow, and then a torso. Before the rest of his body comes visible into the light of the porch, two more blonde heads come into view, flank the first person on either side: Shoulders, torsos, Jean covered legs… The three Mellark brothers make their way leisurely towards me.

I nearly faint from relief after the rush of adrenaline pumping in my veins. Going through so many emotions: grief, sorrow, dread and relief, so fast in such a short amount of time has left me winded and unsteady.

I lose my balance, but one of the boys— Peeta, the youngest— breaks ranks, and rushes to hold me upright.

“Are you okay?” He asks softly, helping me sit back down on the porch steps. I lean my head against the main post.

“I’m okay. Just a little lightheaded,” I try not to glare. They gave me a fright, but I doubt they did it on purpose.

It’s something I’ve learn over the years. People in Panem are kind of quirky.

“Sorry we scared you,” Peeta offers, sheepishly. “We wanted to check up on you, and bring you something…” he looks up at his two older brothers and Rye — the middle one— steps forward, holding up a brown, paper bag, with little greasy spots on the sides.

I can guess what’s inside. They’ve been bringing me cheese buns almost daily, since Peeta found out they’re my favorites.

Rey hands the baggie to Peeta, and the latter offers it to me with a soft smile.

“Thanks,” I mumble, gratefully. I can smell the cheesy, yeasty treat through the bag; I can feel the warmth of the buns too! “While I love freshly baked cheese buns, you guys didn’t have to make this trek just to bring me a treat… on a dark, moonless night no less,” I fix them with a glare. “How did you even get here anyway? You couldn’t have walked and I never saw a car coming?”

My aunt and uncle’s cabin is at least 4 miles from town, and surrounded by woods; but then again, most houses in this weird little place are built in similar locations. It seems the townsfolk take their privacy extremely seriously.

“We rode our dirt bikes,” chimes Rye in, cheerily. “Not much light on those bulbs, though, but it’s okay. Our night vision is prime!” He gives me the A-Okay gesture.

“Rye,” the eldest, Bannock, warns lowly. Baring his teeth.

Rye shrugs and slips his hands on his Jean pockets.

I swear Rye hisses something like “it’s true” under his breath, but Peeta has been rubbing my back with the tip of his fingers all this time, and I’m getting drowsy, so I may have imagined the whole exchange.

“You should eat those while they’re still warm,” Peeta murmurs close by my shoulder.

I nod, and open the bag, releasing all the delicious smells of the buns, while Peeta massages my shoulders, encouragingly.

I must be really out if it tonight, because outside of my family, I’ve never been comfortable with people touching me… but, my family is all gone now, and I can’t go through the rest of my life without human touch, can I?

Grief stricken me out of nowhere, and barrels through me. I gasp at the acute pain in my soul at the loss of my parents. But in an instant, I’m enveloped in strong, thick arms, warm and steady. I’m sobbing into a hot, solid chest, covered in the softest cotton I’ve ever felt.

“Shush… I’ve got you, Katniss. I’m here for you,” Peeta whispers soothingly into the crown of my head.

He smells so good; like cinnamon and dill, from the bread he must’ve made this afternoon at his family’s bakery.

It takes a few minutes for me to get a hold of myself, and embarrassedly push out of his embrace, “I’m sorry,” I mumble, mortified.

Bannock presents me with a handkerchief, and I take it gratefully to wipe off my face and nose, before returning the soiled square of fabric to him.

I’m not sure why the Mellark brothers are being so nice to me. I’ve never been around them more than a handful of days over the past few years, when we came to see Dad’s remaining family outside mom and I, his half brother, his wife and their child.

I don’t know the Mellarks all that well, but in the handful of weeks since my parents’ funeral, the three brothers have been incredibly attentive and generous to me. Peeta more than the other two, but I don’t mind… I like him best anyway.

“It’s okay to cry and be devastated, Katniss.” Says Bannock, sagely. “You’re going through the worst time of your life, and we care for you… like family.”

“Oh,” I sit straighter, blowing my nose. I feel a little strange hearing him say that, “thank you? I appreciate your kindness,”

He nods, “Peeta’s right, though. You should eat the cheese buns before they go cold.”

“A full stomach always helps me feel better,” Rye adds, patting his belly, and smiling at me.

My stomach growls, as if to show agreement. I am hungry. I didn’t touch my supper earlier. I pick up the bakery gingerly, and pretty much shove my nose into it. The steam curls out of the baggie, filling my nostrils with the delicious smells. I pluck out a bun and practically inhale it in a second; quickly followed by another one. My third cheese bun, I decide to savor, slowly.

The Mellark siblings just hang around while I devour my treats.

The front door opens just as I’m wiping my hands on my leggings. My aunt’s head peeks out of the door.

“Oh, why hello everyone!” She greets, as bubbly as always. She’s wearing a dark purple wig, to match her dark purple outfit.

“Good evening, Effie,” says Peeta, standing from his squatting position next to me. “We brought Katniss a gift,” he points at the now empty bag in his hand.

“How sweet of you, Peeta!” my aunt gushes, “thank you for checking on our girl, and making sure she’s put something in her tummy before bedtime!”

I roll my eyes. Aunt Effie keeps treating me like a kid. I hate it. I’m 17 and mourning, not a freaking baby!

“It’s no problem at all, Effie! We were just on our way home anyway.”

“Well, it’s always nice having you boys over,” she offers, “but it’s getting late, and Primrose is already in bed, which is why I came out here to begin with, to let Katniss know that her sister was already asleep, so she’d know to tip toe back inside when she was ready to go to bed herself,” my aunt smiles.

I feel a slight pang of guilt; I’ve been wallowing in my own sadness this evening, and missed tucking my sister in to sleep. She’s the only person I’m sure I love, yet tonight I’ve let my own misery drown me.

“Don’t mind us, Effie,” Says Bannock, “We were about to leave…” he pauses and then calls a meaningful, “Peeta?”

“I’m going to wish Katniss a good night, and then we’ll go,” he says.

Not for the first time, I wonder if Peeta has a crush on me? I wouldn’t know he did, even if I wasn’t feeling so rotten inside. I’m not very good at flirting… but with Peeta it is different I think. He’s so nice to me, he’s taken up asking if I’ve eaten that day and if I haven’t, he feeds me something from his family’s bakery without charging me… it’s like he actually cares for me and my well-being, and his brothers care, because he does. It’s mesmerizing at times.

Peeta looks me in the eyes, “Are you ready to go inside?” He asks, offering his two open palms to me. He helps me up from the floor, and then smiles sweetly. He doesn’t let go of my hands while we stand facing each other.

Then something strange happens. Peeta doesn’t blink, as his clear-blue eyes bore into mine, and then his pupils blow out full, until only a ring of deep, glowing azure remains for his irises, “Sleep well, Katniss,” his voice sounds deeper and warmer than usual, “Rest and have a relaxing, dreamless night. Remember what I said: we are all here for you, to help through this hard time… alright?”

I feel groggy, “Yes, Peeta,” I mumble feeling my eyelids getting heavier.

“Oh dear, can you please instruct her to walk herself to bed? She might look lithe, but I promise, her little body is as heavy as any of us,”

Huh? What’s aunt Effie going on about? I don’t understand.

Peeta chuckles, squeezing my hands warmly in his, “You heard Effie… don’t fall asleep until you’ve gone into your bedroom and change into comfy pajamas.”

I nod, “Okay,”

“Good night, Katniss, I’ll be back tomorrow. Try to eat something on your own, I know you’re sad, but you need your strength for when the solstice comes.”

What a weird thing to say! Everything is strange here though… so I nod and march inside the house, mumbling my good nights to everyone and rubbing my very sleepy eyes. Once I’m in my sleep clothes, I lay in bed, and try to ignore the yearning of having Peeta rubbing my back like he was doing while I ate my cheese buns.

I sigh and go to sleep, a weird thought pops into my mind: “I’m so lucky to have such a sweet, caring mate. Peeta Mellark. Can’t wait to be bonded with him,”

[itsmoonphobic]

✞︎𝕯𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖗𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝕻𝖎𝖓𝖐

"𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔,𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆,𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒍 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅."

𝐎𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐚/𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐛𝐲 @chandelier-s-notebook :) 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭!𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬! 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡,𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐭.

❗TW:𝗗𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 | 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗿𝘀 & 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘀 | 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 Long text below☟︎︎ "𝔗𝔥𝔞𝔱'𝔰 𝔥𝔦𝔪!𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔭𝔦𝔫𝔨 𝔥𝔞𝔦𝔯 𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔞𝔩𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔱!"

"𝔜𝔬𝔲 𝔪𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔷 𝔠𝔞𝔩𝔩 𝔗𝔢𝔠𝔥𝔫𝔬𝔟𝔩𝔞𝔡𝔢?"

"ℑ 𝔥𝔢𝔞𝔯𝔡 𝔭𝔢𝔬𝔭𝔩𝔢 𝔯𝔢𝔣𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔬 𝔥𝔦𝔪 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 '𝔅𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡 𝔤𝔬𝔡' 𝔞 𝔳𝔢𝔯𝔶 𝔡𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯𝔬𝔲𝔰 𝔪𝔞𝔫."

"This is your fault you know?You made him this way Calvin." "So I created a monster huh?Let's see how far he comes."

He was known as ruthless.

He was described as somebody relentless and triumphant. A bloody minded killer with a grand sense of pride.

Wholesale and ambitious.A monster that leaves behind a trace of deep,red crimson liquid everywhere it goes.

Rascal and unattainable,he was confident.Powerful and dominant,somebody who seemed to have no trouble intimidating others around him.

The Blood god.He didn't even remember when people started calling him that.But that name had always belonged to him,didn't it?

He was a god afterall wasn't he? He had always been one. That title belonged to him in the first place,he was chosen to be the holder of that name.It was destined for him.

-

"Phil!Phil!Can you tell us the story again,please?" A boy with pale blue eyes questioned his older brother in curiosity and high expectancy for a satisfying answer.The older man,who seemed to be getting ready for sleep himself,tiredly ruffled his pale blond hair.He was about to blow out the lantern placed next to the excited twins comfortably positioned in their shared bed.He smiled gently in a amused manner at the childish behavior coming from his younger siblings,they were eight afterall what else was he supposed to expect from them?Phil carefully put aside the lit up,metal object he just picked up,and gingerly shuffled on the beige,slightly dirty looking sheets until he found a comfy position.His olive eyes were droopy and half lidded as he struggled to keep himself awake for long enough to finish telling the story,cringing slightly at the thought of falling asleep in the middle of his storytelling.

"Again you two?I told you this story so many times before, shouldn't you be bored of it?" Phil asked with interest.His green eyes meeting shocked sapphire ones and confused ocean ones.The older twin,Tubbo,hugged his bee plushie closer to his chest,looking as if he was thinking of the right words ro say.Tommy on the other hand blurted out: "How could we ever get bored of Techno?!He's the most amazing person ever!When I grow up I wanna be just like him,right Tubbo?" The younger boy side glanced his twin,intensely waiting for his response.Tubbo nodded,his hazel locks falling over his glistening eyes: "Yeah,what he said!" He clutched the soft,black and yellow stuffie in his hands tighter,now moving on to hysterically nodding his head, wildly messing up his brown hair in the process.

Phil chuckled,shaking his head in faux disappointment. "You two are such a hand full!" He exclaimed,lovingly pinching both of their noses.The two young boys whined in annoyance and discomfort at the gesture they received. Phil changed his sitting position once more tonight and finally settled on crossing his legs.Tommy and Tubbo exchanged a happy glance between eachother,unable to contain their excitement.The two brothers,that looked and acted nothing alike,dragged the warm blankets closer to their necks,wanting nothing more than pure comfort.

"Once upon a time..."

-

There once was a boy who lived away in the far lands,you could call his home the outskirts of Bladestrom,the kingdom he and his rather large family resided in.They didn't have much,not that they necessarily required big wealth and power.He and his family owned a potato farm. He loved tagging along with his dad,helping him out wherever and whenever he could in the out stretching and seemingly neverending green fields.The dirt,sweat and unbearable heats got his adrenaline flowing,he loved the feeling of a cool,summer breeze gliding over his sticky and bruised skin.He loved all the scratches littering his pale fingers,the prickling in his fingertips coming from the big amount of harvesting.The way he collapsed onto his bed after an exhausting day of hard work,his mom's homemade pumpkin soup always returned back the strenght and stamina he spent outside on the fields.He felt happy,most kids his age would hate the idea of helping out their parents,when they could instead be playing carelessly with their friends.He felt free,like he could run for hours and never run low on his energy.Like he could get away with everything he did and nobody would be able to catch up to him.He felt alive,like he had a purpose.Yes,maybe potato farming didn't seem like a highly spectacular or interesting purpose in ones life but for this certain boy it was the most greatest opportunity he ever received.

On the days he wasn't at school he would be outside from daybreak to nightfall,nonstop digging around in the wet soil of the yet to be farmed crops.Doing this for most of his life made him pretty much imune to the fear or disgust of such things like insects or mice.He saw many creatures,some smaller and weaker others bigger and tougher,boars had to be his favorite out of all the critters he cought sight of.Not only did the farming calm him down and bring him happiness in his somewhat dull life,but it distracted him. Distracted him from the horrible days he has to spend at school.A place where you are meant to be respectful towards eachother and take care of one another,and not a place where you get blamed for inconsequential actions. Actions he never did and never would think of doing.He got framed for things he never did,behavior he never showed. The farm boy got punished for many different things,he was told many times that he is a problem.He was told that he was in the wrong,he was told that he wouldn't amount to a productive member of society.

He was told that he is dangerous,somebody people could never love,becouse his soul seeks blood.

The boy never knew what gruesome crime he commited for people to throw those types of phrases at him.He didn't understand many of the meanings behind messages he received from both his teachers and fellow students.Thus he began to pile up the questions in his head,questions if all of those venomous words directed at him were true?

With all of that reinforcement,was it really a surprise when that's what he became? Somebody dangerous? A problem?

Every four months,the young boy would travel along with his father to the port,so they got the opportunity to sell and distribute their potatoes.He loved traveling to the town center,there were many harbors and coasts,shores and beaches lining the outer city walls.The seagulls were usually pretty annoying and loud during the time his father an he arrived at port,considering the fact that this wasn't his first time on the port he managed to block out the pesky noises with time and experience.Though he had to recall the time when he threw a rock at one of the white ravens and his dad scolded him for doing so.He didn't like birds that much,they seemed to provoke him every time he payed attention to them.With their weightless feathers and their noisy chirping.He envied them in a way.They could just fly away whenever they felt like it,start a new life,a new beginning in places he will never be able to explore. Dragons on the other hand,fascinated him.Sure the similarities between them and the feathery nuisances were countless but the flying reptiles were far more interesting. Instead of having the feeling that the beasts provoke him, he feels as if they follow him and keep him under control. He always loved watching them soar high up behind the clouds,somewhere they could be themselves,be free.

The boy would gladly help his father load the stock from their carts onto the ships.Some of the sacks were more heavier so his father needed to lend him a hand so that they would be able to transfer all of them before the deadline.Port wasn't a long trip.It's only half an afternoon's trip from their farm with the horses.There are rarely moments where the two family members get stuck in some sort of clumsy situation,such as an accident.But they always stayed the weekend,the boy couldn't really complain about that,it only reminded him that he is able to spend more time by the docks which made him smile.To give the horses a reprise and give his father a chance to catch up with his old friends.He didn't mind their company, most of his dad's mates brought him caramel candy,which was his absolute favorite type of snack.Plus,easily got invested into their conversations.One of his dad's friends, Noah,owned a fencing club just a little to the south outside of the capital city.The boy would always perk his slightly unnatural pointy ears up in interest and curiosity when they brought up the mysterious club he only keeps hearing stories about.

On one such trip,the father and son duo finally payed a visit to the local fecing club.The small boy couldn't hide his nervousness and excitement from his father,his foot was constantly tapping in impatience.His eyes were darting all over the place,as if he was expecting the building to be located behind every possible corner they passed by.His father himself,couldn't contain the love filled smile that started to creep up onto his lips.The club was a nice place. The red-eyed boy could immediately point out that he is going to feel good here,it's as if he decided his safe space. There were many sorts of weapons,the majority of them being swords with different forged blades.From wood to diamond,there was no material or ore that went unused. His was allowed to explore the setting by himself,the sudden,unexpected confidence boost he felt running through his blood must have been caused by the club's atmosphere and vibes.He came across many faces,some greeted him kindly while others payed him no mind and continued with their training,completely unbothered by the pink haired boy's presence walking around them.

He stopped infront of one particular door.It was an old spruce door with old,rusty iron handles.The room wasn't closed,he could pick up the sound of metal clashing against metal,probably a practice fight.He could identify two very unlike voices,one was smoother and more cocky, while the other one came across as more timid and sly.The farm boy peeked his head through the small crack that was left open,his bright pink hair instantly making itself visible. His blood red eyes watched the scene intensely,just like he predicted from the noises and sounds it was indeed a fight. Two boys,about five or six years older then him were both trying to get the upper hand,their silver blades dancing with eachother in destructive harmony.One of them had a large cut across his left cheek,probably a stupid mistake,if he had the right strategies and methods something like a cut that could make you go blind shouldn't happen.The farm boy eyed the other boy,without the wound,closely.

He fought in a way he had never seen before.He made it looks so simple and easy,yet so professionally complicated. He came across too confident for his own good,but at the same time he managed to cover that confidence up with sheer knowledge and intelligence.A smirk that screemed victory ghosted his lips,his nose ever so slightly scrunching up when his fighting partner came close to gracing his tanned skin.In a split second,which almost went unseen by the pink haired boy,the dark skinned boy had his opponent on the ground,sharp and shimmering blade carefully poking his tender flesh around his chin.Red eyes widened in awe and shock,when did he manage to-?

"How long were you watchin' kid?" The pink haired boy tensed up,it was the familiar voice of the curly haired boy that he was just observing with amazement.He didn't even lay his eyes on the farm boy but still cought him in the rather uncomfortable act,he wouldn't like it himself if people just creepily watched from a distance in a corner. He slowly emerged behind the wooden door and shyly made eye contact with the defeated boy on the floor.

"Go on,speak up.Don't think I didn't catch your sneaky glances." The winner held out his hand towards his fallen friend,retrieving his sharp sword away from his face.The farm boy didn't say anything,watching as the loser happily accepted the stretched out hand and pulled himself up.He dusted of his pants from the impact they made with the dust covered ground,the grey particles flowing through the air.

"Don't like to talk much huh?" The dark eyed boy figured, sternly locking his eyes with deep red ones.Almost taken a back by the dangerous crimson orbs the dark skinned boy felt a chill run up his spine when he caught a glimpse of something terrifying swimming in the eyes that were the color of pure blood.The small,pink haired boy didn't know about his scary aura,the experienced boy could clearly tell. But there was something unsettling in the eyes of the innocent boy standing infront of him,something unsettling. Pushing aside the unnerving thought he hoped that the strange boy didn't notice his confused appearance.

Finally,the pink haired boy spoke up:"I'm sorry,I didn't mean to interrupt anything,or make you feel uncomfortable." The way his voice laced itself with hidden,deadly poison was another thing the dark eyed boy noticed.The statement on it's own didn't come across as anything threatening,but there was something horrifying lurking inside it.This little boy,who looked to be around the age of nine,couldn't possibly do these actions on purpose,he probably had no clue that people around him see him like this.

"It's fine kid,don't worry about it.Just get going,the exit is back down the hall." The older boy wanted him gone,the dangerous aura of the pink haired boy strated to grow and he felt like it was suffocating him with how intense it was. The younger individual nodded,he was about to step away and make his way back to his dad and call it a day but he changed his mind mid walk and turned around one more time:"One more thing-",he began "you're really good with a sword that big!" A wide grin grew on his chapped lips.

"What's your name kid?" The swordfighter in training asked. The farm boy answered him calmy: My name is Techno, what's yours?" The older boy,for a moment ignoring the highly questionable presence,huffed quietly:"The name's Calvin,nice to meet ya' kid." Techno's grin spread out,his dimples crawling out. "Nice to meet you too Calvin!"

[Part 2 coming out next week Friday,25th of September]

;)

[thriceboundhome]

Before the Bond

“Sl—slow down, Ita!”

“Walk faster then.”

The two children's squabble echoed through the trees with how loud they were shouting. They had too if they wanted the other to hear. The roar of the waterfall that Itani insisted on walking by was already drowning out the sound around them.

An inaudible jumble of words left Quinn as she kneeled down on one knee to try and catch her breath. Her lungs were burning with how she was pushing herself to keep up with her brother. She doesn't even know what got him so riled up that he's walking so fast. They were walking at a moderate speed last time she checked.

"What was that? You gonna stay there and mope?"

Almost

The stone that  flew at him made any form of pity for the girl vanish. He caught it in one hand as the other raised to point at her, a flinch from her made him pause and breathe to calm down before sighing. The boy glanced at the stone before dropping it into the stream at his feet when he felt the urge to throw the pebble back at her. Itani looked back at Quinn and gave her a thin lined smile with his eyes closed.

“Stay here. I'll go out to see if I can catch a rabbit for us to roast.”

The male said the words like an order, even knowing that Quinn didn't take the tone kindly. In her frustration, she pushed up some dirt with her hands.  She had sat down while trying to catch her breath when her legs started shaking. Her body still in panic mode from being captured and whisked away from her home.

“Why can't I go with you, huh! You don't like me or something?”

The question was asked out of anger, though she knew that whatever answer she gets might just make her cry. From the harsh way Itani was talking to her and the situation she was taken out of, it's safe to say that her mind wasn’t ready for any kind of rejection at the moment.

The boy in question stopped himself mid step and turned to face her. It was hard to balance on a smooth rock with rapid water flow pulling at his feet but he made it work. The sight he was greeted by was the elf eared girl punching the hard ground beneath her with drooping ears. Unshed tears clumping at the corner of her bright blue eyes.

Red splattered lightly on the dirt since small rocks were digging into Quinn's skin. The crunching sound made Itani's skin crawl, too familiar a sound to the crackling, burning wood that remains playing in the back of his head. A smooth stone was thrown at the girl to get her to stop, hitting her square in the middle of her forehead.. Not the best way to end the onslaught she  unknowingly caused him but it worked. Her shiny eyes filled with hurt was only a small price to pay for his mind.

“I don't like you but I don't hate you either,” he spoke his mind, ignoring the fuming girl as she quarrelled about the stone hitting her head. “I tolerate you, I don't save someone I don't like.”

The confession made her pause her ranting. A small nod to herself was done as she soaked in the information. Half of a smile came to her lips while Itani continued walking up the stream. His words made sense plus it wasn't a total rejection which made the sting in her eyes lessen. Even if it was a rejection it wasn't the same as the ones she got when she was locked in that damp...dark.. cold cell. Itani's voice broke her train of thought and brought her back to the present. 

“Stay put, you're hurt. I'll be back soon. Shout if something happens.”

With the words hanging in the air, he left the girl to her own devices. Silence filled the air save the thundering of the nearby waterfall. The girl was left with her thoughts, something she didn't allow herself to do often. The things that her mind provided her with at times like these weren't always the greatest.  A low whistle left her as she breathed out some air before puffing her cheeks. If she was going to be left alone, she certainly wasn't going to be left bored.

So with shaking limbs and nothing but the sheer will to disobey Itani, Quinn picked herself up and wandered around the waterfall and streams. Her legs still refused to work with her so she ended up having to crawl some. The girl made her way to the edge of the walk way and peered over to view the water. It was crystal clear, reflecting the bright blue sky so perfectly that it matched the sparkle in her eyes. She almost couldn't make out her eyes from the water.

She giggled out as she let her hand dip into the cool water. A content sigh left her as the cool of the water fought off the heat that came from overworking herself. Allowing her eyes to slide shut, she felt a strange peace settling over her with the sounds that surrounded her. The chirping of the birds overhead, the crittering of squirrels playing along the trunks of trees soothed her. Eventually, she ended up dozing off. The sounds of the forest calming her enough to let the adrenaline in her system wash away, allowing her rest.

All while Quinn drifted off to sleep, Itani was making his way back to her. Bow and arrow in one hand, a few skewered rabbits in the other, it took some time to track them down and get a good aim but he was satisfied with his catch.

‘Should last us about a week until I need to hunt again.’ 

He made a mental reminder to himself as he pushed away leaves that blocked his path. He was hurrying and he didn’t know why. What had him in such a twist that he was running out of breath just from walking, there were only two answers to that question and both were distasteful to him. One more than the other but it still made him scrunch up his nose in refusal at the idea. Though the answer was clear to see he couldn’t bring himself to admit it. Even when he let out a breath of relief when he saw Quinn, napping.

Comfortable and unharmed. It made his chest feel lighter, like a weight was lifted. One that he didn’t know existed. He stood there looking at her for a while longer, just to make sure she wasn’t hurt in any form of the word. Well, not every form, her mind probably isn’t the safest place for her to be at the moment considering the situation he had taken her out of. He moved towards her and set down the catch and his weapon on the cloth he brought back with him. Whoever decided to leave it hanging in a tree wasn’t the brightest.

The male was startled. You'd think that being waterboarded would make you scared out of your mind at the sight of water but here Quinn was with her hand in the water dreaming away. She's a different breed of human to him for doing what she does. If Itani was in her position he would have begged to not be around this amount of water all at once.  She worries, confuses and amazes him all at once. He still freaks out at any sign of fire going out of control. The tiniest sound of wood crunching makes him sick. The boy's not too sure how to feel about it. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

It wasn't long before Quinn woke up. The scent of meat sizzling made her dreams take a turn to food land and she woke up with twitching ears and growling stomach. Her back was covered and warm, it helped her blurry eyes and muffled mind to clear. The girl sat up and pulled her legs close to her chest until a satisfying pop was heard. Her ears twitched again as her hands moved to rub the sleep out of her eyes,a lazy smile evident on her lips

“Mornin’ sleepy elfy.”

That made her jump. Hands coming down to clench the cloth that sat on her lap to pull it to her chest. A small whimper of fear slipped past her lips as her shoulders shoke in her panic. Slowly, she turned her head to see Itani behind her. Green eyes watched her in confusion, hints of worry sparkled in the forest green of the boy’s eyes. She let out a heavy sigh at the familiar face. Her hands set the cloth back down and rose to pass through her knotted black hair. An 'over it' expression took over her face.

“Mornin’ spooky,” Quinn replied sarcasm dripped off of her reply,“ do you wake everyone you know like that in the morning or something?”

The question set off an unwelcomed throbbing in the boy’s chest. The implications behind the words meant that he had someone left, waiting for him. He wished. Instead of answering the girl he opted to turn over the rabbit that was over the pit of fire he had lit after he had woken up from his sleep. Bucket of water close to his side so that any moment the sound of the crackling fire got to him.  A small laugh came from the man to throw off the heavy feeling on his chest.

“ No, just lazy elfs that I come across.” Itani removed the cooked rabbit from above the fire and handed it to the girl. She had scooted closer to him as they conversed. The subjects were light, jokes and jabs were made. The two kids felt like they were in their own little bubble of the world. Like nothing could hurt them or ruin the security they felt as they soaked in the sun and allowed the  refreshing lake water to swirl around their feet.

“ Sorry for making you feel as though I hated you,” Itani started, his eyes casted to the meat in his hands, “I actually really like your company. ”

Quinn looked at him, startled. Round sky blue eyes looked at the white haired man curiously, trying to determine if he was messing with her. Her hands came up to touch his cheek. She gave him a soft smile and a simple nod of understanding. He leaned slightly into her hand and sighed, is this how Dakota felt when he comforted her? A small fortress around her keeping her safe with all it's might? He would love to get used to this.

“ No worries! I got tough skin,” a grin replaced the soft smile on the girl's face,“ you can't get rid of me with that even if you tried!”

They laughed together as they packed up and outed the fire. Onto wherever their legs take them. An adventure awaits them and they're ready.

Ready together.

[katalyna-rose]

Kat’s Rat Shopping List

I’ve gotten a few requests for a shopping list of my rat setup (tagging @collapseofthesky because they requested this, specifically, but I’ve had a few others message me), so I thought I’d give it a try and also add a few explanations for why I do some things the way I do. As such, this is going to be a very long post and is therefore under a cut. There will be a basic shopping list without all the explanations at the very end of the post under TL;DR if you don’t care about the rest or whatever.

I had a lot of fun with this and spent way more time on it than I meant to, and might be open to doing more of this kind of thing in the future.

Cage

First up, the cage. Obviously. I’ve said it before but it’s a Double Critter Nation and a Single Critter Nation with the side panels removed and zip tied together. These are sometimes sold in pet stores (the locally owned pet store I prefer has them in stock). I bought mine online because of a really good sale, but you can sometimes get really lucky and find them for resale on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist for super cheap. I love this cage because the whole front opens up and that makes it super accessible and easy to clean, decorate, and get to my pets wherever they may be. It’s also huge!

US minimum for rat cages is 2 cubic feet per rat, with a minimum of two rats because rats cannot be housed alone as they are extremely social animals. No, human companionship is not enough, rats need same-age, same-species companionship at all times. Please be aware, as well, that minimums are not the ideal to strive for. Whatever space you intend to dedicate to your rats, fill it! Fill it all up! And if you don’t have enough space for a large cage, don’t get rats. My setup, with the Home Depot/Lowe’s large cement mixing tubs in the bottom, is roughly 45 cubic feet of space. If we’re looking at minimums, this means I could house 22 rats! There’s no way that 22 rats could ever actually be comfortable in my setup. It would be insane, chaotic, and extremely messy. So why would 2 rats be comfortable in 4 cubic feet? They wouldn’t. More space is always better, hard stop.

Also remember that wire cages with bar spacing of no more than an inch for adult rats and no more than half an inch for small or young rats is a must. Tanks are absolutely not recommended for rats due to poor ventilation, which will cause respiratory issues and allow ammonia to build up much faster.

Bedding

This is different from nesting. Yes, it is. Bedding is the substrate used at the bottom of the cage or on shelves to catch errant droppings and urine, and is generally left where it is by the rats because they have no interest in it.

My main bedding is pine wood horse stall pellets. They are as dust free as the alternatives like shavings or paper pellets, and combine the best aspects of both those types of bedding with the ammonia-neutralizing effects of wood shavings and the compact, easy-to-clean nature of pellets. I love them. I also get them super hilariously cheap from Tractor Supply Co, so despite it being a little bit of a drive for me (about an hour round trip) the fact that it’s half the price of the next cheapest option more than makes up for it. I buy a bunch all at once and currently have a few bags left in my trunk because I didn’t have enough closet space for them. It’s great stuff. It crumbles when wet so it helps me keep track of how much and where they’re urinating, and it’s easy to spot clean those areas in between deep cleans.

When choosing a wood, if that’s the route you want to go, remember to check what is safe to use. Pine is only safe when it’s kiln-dried, since it contains fragrant oils that can cause respiratory issues in rats, mice, and hamsters. Some people will advise you to stay away from it entirely, and that’s fine, but since pine is often the cheapest option it’s not always viable. Aspen is a safe wood, but harder to find in pellet form and slightly more expensive as shavings. I use aspen shavings in my litter trays. Cedar wood is NEVER safe, no matter how it’s treated. I don’t think cedar is ever safe no matter what for any animal it’s marketed to, actually. It’ll cause respiratory distress in rats, mice, and hamsters, and guinea pigs and rabbits should never be on shavings regardless though I’m pretty sure they’ll still experience respiratory distress. The oils naturally in the wood are not safe, do not use cedar. Also make sure your bedding is as dust-free as possible, also for respiratory reasons. If you have a small animal, their respiratory system is extremely delicate, and that’s just a fact of pet ownership that you should have learned before getting a pet when you were researching how to care for it.

Since I have two shelves in my cage and they are both shallow to the point of not even having a lip (Critter Nation’s only flaw is the trays that come with the cage), I line my shelves with fleece over an appropriately sized bath mat. Fleece makes a great shelf liner, but I don’t recommend using it in the entire cage because it gets dirty really fast and most rats will chew it up, so you’ll both be changing it every other day and going through it super fast as it is destroyed. However, it makes great shelf liners, especially when very little of the shelf is actually available to the rats like in my setup, where the shelves are mostly covered in other things. Remember that fleece must always be lined with an absorbent layer underneath because the fleece itself allows liquid to pass right through it. That’s the point: the fleece stays relatively clean and dry while the absorbent layer takes all the gross stuff away. Towels are generally not recommended for this because rats can get their nails stuck in the fabric and rip them out, which is painful and distressing for the rat and also you. Anything super absorbent with a really tight weave will do lovely here, hence the low pile bath mats I use. I get them for one or two dollars at Ikea and wash them every week. I keep several around to rotate through. The fleece I use is also a fleece blanket from Ikea for a couple bucks that I cut into four sections because that rendered it the perfect size to tuck around the shelves. This makes my bedding extremely cheap, and that makes me happy because I can spend that money on enrichment instead.

Nesting

This is the material that the rats like to push around, dig in, and sleep in. It’s important to provide soft but preferably absorbent materials for the rats to nest in because it’s enriching, comfortable, and helps them regulate body temperature. Multiple types of nesting are recommended for enrichment purposes. Rats like texture! I use unscented, unlotioned tissues as a main nesting material for within their hides because they’re cheap, safe, absorbent, and soft. I bought 30 boxes of 100 tissues each for super cheap online, but you can also buy dollar store tissues or whatever you have access to. Just make sure they don’t have scents or lotions, because those are not safe for your rats’ delicate respiratory systems. The empty boxes (plastic removed) can also be given for the rats to chew up and play in, or you can save them up to DIY some fun toys later, which is what I’m doing.

I also have two dig boxes, which will also go under the enrichment section. The bins I got for cheap from Target, but obviously you can get bins wherever you want to get bins. Just measure to make sure they fit in your cage properly. The only dig box I want to talk about in this section is the hay box, because the dirt is not actually a nesting material but rather an enriching one. So, hay. My girls love this stuff so much that they drag it all over the cage to shove it into all their sleeping areas. They build actual rat nests in the box, tunnel through it, stash food in it, shred it for fun, and generally spend as much time as possible with the hay. I use oat hay for the seed heads that provide additional enrichment and snacks because the rats have to get to the seeds in order to eat them. If you are feeding a low-quality diet to your rats, do not use oat hay because they’ll fill up on seeds instead of eating their nutritionally-balanced food and that is not good. My rats love their food so much that the seeds are a sometimes snack that I don’t need to regulate because they do it themselves. Any good quality hay will do for a hay box, however, and timothy hay tends to be the cheapest option. Just make sure it’s not super low quality, because low quality hay tends to be dusty. As mentioned previously several times, rats have delicate respiratory systems and dust is bad for them. I buy my hay from Small Pet Select because I like supporting small business, ethical business, and businesses that provide excellent products. They are, however, primarily a rabbit site. I keep hoping they’ll expand the other sections of their shop. Also, make sure your rats aren’t trying to eat the hay. This is highly unlikely because rats are smart and know what’s edible and what isn’t, and hay is not edible for rats. If for some reason your rats are eating hay, do not give them a hay box.

Other nesting options I’ve used in the past include cut up bits of fleece, cut up old clothes you might have lying around, and generally just bits of fabric. Just remember to change out/wash them regularly. Ammonia will build up, and once again that’s bad for your rats’ respiratory systems.

Hides and Hammocks

Rats are prey animals. Surprise! As such, they need plenty of places to hide and feel safe. Rats love small, dark places to rest in. Much like many introverted humans, myself included! Make sure to include plenty of hides all over the cage. Variety is excellent here for enrichment reasons. My rats absolutely love Space Pods! Lixit makes the ones I use, but there’s also a brand called Sputnik that’s basically the same thing. I’ve never seen them in stores, but they’re all over the internet. For rats, make sure you get the large size. Honestly I wish it was larger than it is, but oh well. The girls love it anyway. I kept getting sent only the bottom halves, which is why I have two half space pods in my cage. I got a refund or replacement on both because it’s not what I paid for, but, like… I received the usable half, so I’m gonna use it. The girls don’t like to sleep in them without the covers, but they’ll hang out in there and clean themselves, and they climb through them to get from one spot to another.

In addition to the space pods, I also have various other hides. Lixit also makes a pill-shaped plastic hide that I keep on the shelf over the dirt box. They used to use it a lot more than they do now, and I’m not entirely sure why. Even so, they still use it! I also have a woven grass tent that they enjoy, and a cork log. Neither of those are really for sleeping, but they do hide in them sometimes and generally like to hang out there.

Hammocks are great, and also available in wide variety all over the internet and in stores. My favorite banana hammock was just retired, but I intend to get another. The girls loved it and so did I! Hammocks come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and can pull double duty as both a place to sleep and a way to break up the cage so there aren’t any dead drops where your rats can fall from a height and hurt themselves. Fill your cage with hammocks! All the hammocks! Support small creators by buying homemade hammocks! Learn to make them yourself! They’re cheap and easy! Hammocks are great.

Enrichment Part 1: Levels

Rats are climbers. Rats need vertical space as well as horizontal space. Rats are sometimes clumsy idiots who fall off of things. As such, all vertical space must be filled with all kinds of fall breakers. As mentioned before, hammocks are great for this. So are ladders, bridges, ropes, and that Ikea tie hanger I have strung across the back of my cage. If your rat falls from anywhere in the cage, make sure there’s something to catch them!

Also make sure there’s something to do on all the levels of the cage, even if that thing to do is just get from one level to the next. Rats are dexterous and adventurous. Ramps are boring because they’re easy. If you have sick or injured rats, absolutely use ramps! Accessibility matters! If your rats are of sound body, however, make them work for it. Lava ledges and bird perches make great alternatives to ramps. Screw them into the cage walls and watch your rats hop around! They love it. Ladders are also fun, especially if they’re not used the way ladders are meant to be used. Suspend them from things, put them at weird angles, just make sure they’re secure. I get a lot of my levels from the bird aisle at the pet store (or virtual pet store). Be aware that sometimes your rats are going to prefer to climb directly on the bars of the cage. That’s normal! The bars are there, so the rats will climb them. That’s all there is to it!

Climbing frames like the wooden wine rack from Ikea that I have in the bottom of my cage are also good to have. My girls love it, and it does double duty as a chew toy.

Enrichment Part 2: Chewing

Contrary to popular belief and old science, rats do not actually require chews to keep their teeth trimmed. Rats trim their own teeth by bruxing, or grinding their teeth together. This does not, however, negate the need for chews. Rats like to chew! What your rat likes to chew best is entirely subjective. Some rats love wood and sticks, some rats will always chew fabric over anything else, some rats will never chew fabric. Every rat is different! Try as much variety as you can and keep stocked up on the things your rats like best. My rats really like woven grass, and I try to keep at least a couple different kinds around for them. I keep a grass mat on a shelf that they like to pull apart, and the woven grass tent will likely have a short lifespan, as well. There’s a woven grass tunnel thing that they’ve put into the dirt box and are slowly but systematically shredding. My girls also like willow sticks, so I’ve got a couple hanging toys of willow that are very slowly being chewed because there’s so much else to chew. The wooden bridges see a fair bit of chewing, and even the lava ledges get chewed on the edges. My girls also love destroying rattan and wicker balls. I bought a bunch of them for cheap and toss a new one in there about every week or so. They love them. I also got a couple things from Small Pet Select like a pine cone, a bit of natural loofah, and a dried okra pod. So far the okra pod has seen the most action and is shredded halfway to infinity. I think they like that it has seeds inside, but the others get chewed sometimes, too. There’s enough variety in my setup that everything lasts a decently long time. Except the rattan balls.

Enrichment Part 3: Digging

As much as rats like to climb, they also like to dig. That’s why it’s highly recommended to have a dig box. Safe substrate is important here. If you’re going with potting soil, make sure it’s just dirt and doesn’t contain any fertilizer. Personally, I found potting soil to be kind of annoying a little expensive. I prefer coconut soil. I use Exo Terra terrarium soil, which is sold in compacted blocks that you have to hydrate. I use two thirds of the recommended water because my rats don’t need humidity. I use three blocks per dig box, and replace the soil every month because the girls will do their business in it sometimes, leave food in it, leave bits of tissue or hay or various shredded chews. Basically, the dirt gets dirty in bad ways and needs to be replaced sometimes. It can also grow things if left too long because of the humidity (which will be a problem regardless of the type of substrate being used). So every deep clean, both dig boxes get emptied, wiped out, and refilled.

The hay box gets an honorable mention here, since it pulls double duty as both nesting and digging. Triple duty, really, since it’s also a forage toy.

Enrichment Part 4: Misc

Yeah, I didn’t know what category to put this under, so here we are. Litter boxes! No, seriously, this counts as enrichment. Training your rats, whether it’s to do tricks or just poop where you want them to, counts as enrichment. Rats are incredibly smart! They’re at least as trainable as the average dog, especially if they come from an ethical breeder who breeds for health and temperament (let me just slide a reminder not to buy live animals from pet stores that source from highly unethical breeding mills in right here; please support ethical breeders and rescues), and will happily take to any training. Remember that positive reinforcement is the only ethical way to train an animal. Treats are great for this, and your pet will love you even more because every living thing loves food. My rats actually didn’t require much training for their litter trays. Make sure that whatever you’re lining the litter trays with is not the same as their normal bedding. If you’re using aspen shavings in the main cage, use pine in the litter trays, or literally any distinct safe bedding. I use shavings in my litter trays and pellets in my main cage. This helps the rats distinguish the litter trays from the rest of the cage and makes it easier to identify where to do their business versus where not to do so. When you first put the litter trays in, just go in at least once a day and toss any poops you see into the tray. If you see your rats using the litter tray, offer a treat while they’re doing so. Rats are extremely clean animals and they like their mess contained as much as you do. It would not be possible for me to only deep clean once a month if I didn’t have litter trays that I clean out about twice a week (or more, if necessary) to get rid of the majority of the mess and smell. I’d be deep cleaning every two weeks at least without them, so the litter trays are a great investment overall. Your rats will never be perfect about using them, because they’re still rats, but they’ll help a great deal.

Also under this section are forage toys! Do not feed your rats from a simple bowl, it’s boring and encourages stashing, which means you’ll never know when they’ve actually run out of food because they’re just going to pick it up and take it somewhere else and have a great big hoard that you’ll find on deep clean day. You can definitely scatter feed, that’s enriching as well because it makes the rats go looking for their food, but forage toys are the ultimate way to feed your rats, I think. I mostly don’t get my forage toys from the small animal aisle. I do have one that’s small animal specific, a little ball that they roll around the get the food out. I also have some marketed for cats, and some marketed for birds. Having multiple kinds is really helpful. I’ve also noticed that while some stashing still occurs, it’s greatly reduced. I refill the toys as they empty and everyone’s happy.

Food/Water

What you feed your rats is extremely important, obviously. Many commercially available pellet foods marketed for rats are actually extremely not good for rats. The same is true cat and dog food. It is a sad fact that the companies that make these foods tend to be far more interested in their bottom line than the health of your pet. As such, do your research! Always do your research! Know what’s in the food and what your animal should be eating, and try to match those two things up as closely as possible. In the UK rat owners typically will avoid pellet foods and prefer homemade mixes for these reasons, but making your own mix is not always feasible and can be tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing. Most US rat owners tend toward pellets because it’s a lot harder to mess up the balance of nutrients when it’s done for you. Also, the UK does not have Oxbow, which is one of the most popular brands of healthy rat food. It’s the brand that I use, and my rats adore it. Mazuri is another popular and healthy option, but my rats prefer Oxbow over anything else. I kind of want to try making my own mix at some point, but I’m not sure I ever will. Like with most of my rat supplies, I buy food in bulk because it’s cheaper. A 20 lb bag of Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food runs me about 40 bucks. Be careful to buy adult rat food, even for baby rats, because any food that says Young Rat and Mouse is not going to have the appropriate balance of fat and protein even for young rats. Adult food will do just fine for babies, too. If you want to add some extra protein to their diet, try a boiled egg or bits of meat every now and then, but it’s probably not necessary as long as they’re getting enough food and some extra fruits and veggies now and then. If you want to try making a mix, do so much research before you try it, and make sure your ingredients are good quality.

Rats should also receive other foods in addition to their pellet or main food. Rats are omnivores and love fresh veggies, fruits, milk, eggs, and meat! Make sure you research safe foods before giving them to your rats, as not everything is safe. If you adopt your rats from an ethical breeder, they should have resources available to you on what’s safe and healthy. If you rescue, you can still reach out to established ethical breeders for tips and tricks, or find lists online as you do your research. Some veggies are only safe cooked, some parts of certain plants are unsafe while others are safe, and some foods are only safe for males or females but not the other sex (citrus and mango are the ones I remember that fall into that category). Just do your research and try to keep processed foods away from your rats. Sodium is also not good for them. Any raw meat or fish should be frozen and then thawed before being fed to your rats to kill any potential contaminants. Like always, do your research first!

Rats obviously require water, as well. Water bottles tend to be the most widely accepted way to give rats water, because they don’t evaporate and are easy to keep clean. I, however, have a terrible time with bottles, and they always leak or break. Thus, I have opted for water bowls instead. The girls love them more than the bottles I’ve used in the past, and they’re a little more enriching, as well. The only downside is that I have to wash them out daily. But since I spot clean daily anyway, I don’t mind at all.

First Aid Kit

Any responsible pet owner should always keep a first aid kit around, no matter what kind of pet they have. Pet owners who have particularly vulnerable pets should especially be careful to make sure they have a well-stocked first aid kit. This should include single-use sterile syringes without needles, gauze pads, vet wrap, infant/toddler ibuprofen or acetaminophen, medical tape, cat nail trimmers, and probiotic powder like Benebac. But most importantly, it should include the phone number and location of a vet that will see and treat rats. Have a vet picked out that you have confirmed will see and treat your pets BEFORE getting pets. If an emergency arises and you’re suddenly scrambling for a vet last second, not only do you waste precious time getting your pet the help they need but you may find out too late that the nearest rat-friendly vet is too far away. That means your pet will suffer unnecessarily and you are an irresponsible pet owner. Hard stop. If there is no vet within reach that will see rats, do not get rats. Rats will require a vet trip at least once in their lives, since all rats are extremely prone to respiratory illness. Sometimes this happens for no reason at all, because all rats possess a bacteria in their respiratory systems called mycoplasma. There’s no way to get rid of it and nothing you can do about it except make sure your rats live in a clean, well-ventilated environment with safe bedding and materials. Even with all this, sometimes your rats will get sick. That’s normal! Just make sure you can take care of them when it happens. As such, make sure you have a vet fund at all times of at least a couple hundred dollars, in addition to a well-stocked first aid kit and the name and location of an appropriate vet.

It’s also beneficial and enriching to syringe train your rats. What this means is putting a liquid treat like baby food, yogurt, or apple sauce into a syringe and giving it to your rats. This teaches the rats that the syringe is a good thing so that if you ever need to give them medicine from the syringe (rat medicine tends to be oral and dissolved in a liquid solution, so those needle-less syringes will be necessary) they’re more likely to take the medicine with minimum complaints.

Storage

Maybe it goes without saying, but you also need places to put all of the things for your rats. Keep your first aid kit in a box to itself so you always know where it is, and organize your supplies appropriately. I really like Ikea bins for my bedding and food and other dry bulk items, and I keep a lot of my smaller stuff on a shelf at the foot of my bed. Work with the space you have, and plan appropriately.

And thus concludes this extremely long explanation of the bare basics of healthy rat living. Really, this is the bare basics and not even remotely comprehensive of the options available. Be creative when shopping, and definitely look outside of the small animal aisle at your local pet store because it will not contain anywhere near all of what you need.

TL;DR: A Basic Shopping List of My Specific Setup

-Double Critter Nation

-Single Critter Nation

-Zip ties

-2 Large sized cement mixing tubs from Home Depot/Lowe’s

-Pine wood horse stall pellets

-Low pile bath mats, enough to rotate while washing

-Fleece blanket, cut in quarters to fit shelves, enough to rotate while washing

-Bins to hold digging substrate

-Oat hay from Small Pet Select or Oxbow

-Exo Terra coconut fiber terrarium soil

-Lixit Critter Space Pods, large

-Lixit Small Animal Hideout

-Woven grass mat

-Woven grass tent

-Woven grass tube

-Rattan/wicker balls, lots

-Willow stick hanging toys

-Natural loofah

-Sanitized (and therefore safe) pine cone

-Dried okra pod

-Dog ropes

-Wooden bendy bridges

-C-clips, both the kind meant for shower curtains and smaller ones marketed for kids, for hanging things

-Hammocks. All the hammocks. From everywhere hammocks are sold.

-3 (sometimes 4) Ware Scatterless Lock-n-Litter Small Animal Litter Pan, Regular

-Ikea tie hanger

-Ikea wine rack

-Ikea storage bins

-Forage toys

-Oxbow Essentials Adult Rat food

-Ceramic (and therefore tip-proof) water bowls, and/or bowls that can be attached to the cage

-Sterile single-use syringes without needles

-Gauze

-Vet wrap

-Medical tape

-Infant/toddler ibuprofen/acetaminophen

-Cat nail trimmer

-Probiotic powder like Benebac

-The phone number and location of a rat-friendly vet

-A vet fund of at least a couple hundred dollars

A final note before the end: Always remember to do your research before getting pets, do not get pets if you cannot provide a good life for them with MORE THAN the bare minimum requirements for safe and healthy pets, do not buy live animals from pet stores unless it’s part of a rescue program, don’t take the word of just one person as law, don’t be afraid to ask questions respectfully, and always seek new ways to improve your pet care. This has been a PSA from your friendly small animal enthusiast.

[koba-baboba]

moony

a/n: hey look a new series because i got overhwhelmed by in the dark. this will be a self indulgent story so its ok if you dont like it. im trying a new writing style so let me know if its any good. this isnt really edited so read at your own risk. shout out to anyone who can figure out which part of this chapter i inserted after it was done.

chapter 1/? word count: 1628

warnings: none i think. a weeny bit of blood.

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towering trees and bright flowers are all i can see for miles, it was the most beautiful thing ever. mother held my hand, swinging it as we walked along the dimly lit dirt path. "happy birthday my love! how does it feel to be 6 hm?" mothers words are soft and full of love as she looks down at me fondly. "not much differnt, i think im taller maybe?" i screw my face up trying to think if i felt taller or not, i *felt* taller. mother laughed heartly as she looked around us. "youre almost past my hip now! youve definitely gotten taller." mother cooed still looking happily at me. i smiled, i *am* almost past her hip now! i swung her hand even more as we contiuned on our walk. "dad doesnt like to go on these walks does he?" i questioned, looking up at mother. "he doesnt like to get his fancy shoes dirty, Alexander has always been that way" she reasured me softly. the bush in front of us rustled, mother excitedly pulled me down to crouch so we didnt scare the critter moving towards us. i wiggled excitedly, hoping it would be a bunny. "stay still. maybe its a deer" mother whispers into my ear. the rustling get louder before a dirty tired looking man stumbles out. mother pulled me up harshly and hid me behind her. i tried to peek out at the man but she shoved me behind her again. i suddenly remebered what day it was, the full moon. i clutched to mothers shirt as she put a hand on my shoulder.

"can i help you sir? you look ill" mothers voice is shakey but firm. "now that you ask... i do need help"

im on my back on the floor, its uncomfortable and bumpy. my hands are wet and warm, it feels gross and sticky.i raise my hands to my face, theyre red? i turn my head to see if mother knows whats happening and... the man is on top of her, his teeth digging into her neck. shes screaming, crying, "m-mom?"

"mom?" i whisper but im not in that forest anymore, im on my bed in my room. i look around my room, at the posters and drawings on my wall that i made myself, at my trunk and bag near my door. it takes me a second to register the knocking at my door. "andi we need to go" a sandy haired man says softly as he pushes through my door. its just remus, im safe. i push myself up to sit on the edge of my bed and run my hand through my messy curls. "are you alright sweetheart?" remus- dad, asks me softly. "nightmare" i mumbled sleepily. he sighs and sits down next to me. he rubs circles against my back. "its always worse after the full moon, give yourself some patient love" dad said softly, he knew i wouldnt actually give myself time to bounce back. it was frustrating to admit i needed time to heal, i didnt like admitting i was differnt. dad sighed and kissed my forehead gently "get dressed, you can eat at the weasleys, molly will have plenty of food for you"

i pull my t-shirt and worn jeans on and try desperatley to make my hair less of a mess. i dragged my trunk downstairs towards dad who was waiting patiently at the door. "ready? molly will have some ointments for you when you get there."

"i double checked this time" i chuckle, more than once ive forgotten something important, my school supplies werent exactly cheap so that wasnt exaclty ideal. dad chuckled and looped his arm through mine and, with a loud pop, we landed at the burrow. my second home! i live here as often as i do at dads house. it was the most brilliant house ive ever been too.

the door flew open and two lanky twins came flying towards me. fred and george collided with me, hugging me tightly. i giggled squeezing them tightly. Remus put his hand on my shoulder “I’ll see you at the train station, be safe” and with a pop he was gone.

“He never comes inside” a sweet voice came from the doorway. A plump woman was looking fondly at the three teens. She opened her arms wide, beckoning me forward. i smiled and wrapped my arms around molly. “Hello dear” she cooed into my hair. Molly pulled back and looked me over, cupping my face and turned it side to side, examining the new cuts and bruises i donned. She hummed

“Ginny! Ron! Come here!” Molly shouted as she pulled me inside, the twins following.

“She’s going to coddle you” Fred whispered into my ear with a little chuckle. i rolled my eyes as i followed molly into the kitchen where Ron and Ginny had just rushed in.

“Andi!” Ginny bounded towards me wrapping her arms around me and hugged me like it had been years since the last time she had seen me. Ginny had always looked up to me like an older sister ever since she could speak. i hoisted Ginny up and into my arms spinning her around. god i loved the weasleys, every one of them, including percy.

“I’m a little offended you didn’t do that for us” George huffed feigning hurt.

“Yeah come on andi, I thought we were your favourite” Fred added, mimicking his twin.

“Now when did I say that boys” i teased as i plopped Ginny back on the floor. The twins rolled their eyes before throwing their arms over my shoulders. the twins did this to me so often, we were always joined at the hip in some way.

“I dunno I just have a sneaking suspicion that you like us” the boys said in unison. i snickered and gave Ron a happy “hello”

“Now now boys don’t be too rough on her” molly scolded shooing the twins off of me. i sighed, Molly always had a tendency to treat me like i was fragile. “Oh come on mum it’s not like we’re throwing her around” Fred whined. “We could if you wanted” George whispered. The trio had learned early on that the best way to annoy the younger groups was to mock flirt with each other. After awhile it became an inside joke that the three found hilarious. Much to everyone’s dismay.

“Come on andi let me clean you up” Molly’s words are sweet but insistent. i know better than to argue with molly over this stuff. Molly is a excellent healer and it would be stupid to deny her help. i looked over at the twins who are grinning ear to ear, they did warn me i suppose. i rolled my eyes once more before following molly to the living room. i sit down on the sofa the twins and i often crowd. It was far too small for three lanky teens. Molly began rustling in a little bag near a bookshelf. She was humming a song and shaking to a tune only she could hear. Ah ha! Molly exclaimed as she pulled out a little jar full of white paste.

“This will help it heal a little faster, it won’t keep it from scarring unfortunately” molly starts excitedly before mumbling off the last part. i knew this, magic was wonderful but it couldn’t prevent scarring in most situations. i had more scars than i cared to count. Molly cupped my face as she smeared the paste over my wounds, i winced slightly. no matter if it had numbing ingriedents or not, this part always hurt

“I know it hurts, just breathe” molly humed. “Do you have anymore?” Molly questions looking me over. “You know the answer to that question” i chuckled dryly as i stood pulling my shirt up with me. Revealing a bandage stretching across my stomach.

Molly sighed, she hated seeing her kids hurt, not that Andi was her kid but it certainly felt like it. Molly peeled the bandage off slowly trying desperately to keep it from hurting too much.

i shuddered biting back tears as i felt the bandage pull healed skin with it.

The twins were watching from the doorway as molly tended to Andi. They knew what Andi looked like after full moons but they never got used to the gashes and bruises she dawned afterwards. Fred turned away, he felt sick to his stomach, he loved Andi, he wished he could take this from her. She didn’t deserve it.

Molly patched andi's stomach up once more and pulled her shirt down over it.

“Put this on your face twice a day and I’ll help you with your back until you go to school then then ask one of your friends to help” molly instructed waving her finger at me to enunciate her words.

“Yes ma’am” i mock soluted, i knew how much that annoyed her. i turned towards the door way and gave George a lopsided grin and peeked past him at Fred who was leaning against a counter.

“Want to show me what your letters talked about?” i said my tone dripping with mischief. The twins faces lit up as they grabbed my hands and dragged me up the stairs, giggling like kids the whole way to their room.

“What are you three planning??” Molly shouted up the stairs. She knew those three were troublemakers at heart. They had been since they met when they were 7. Remus needed help with Andi after a rough full moon and the rest is history. The three of them managed to turn rons teddy bear into a spider once.