#i think a goat and cow and maybe even a horse could make it all better

[oursecretways]

“Look at all those chickens’’

OT8 × Reader notes: ngl this all started with me seeing a chicken art on my feed and I realized I want a couple dozen now lol, so enjoy my first imagine/drabbles. Also, sorry it got so late by the time I have finished this, I will revisit to edit this and that is why it got shorter and shorter at the end 😭 (Forbidden feelings coming soon♡︎) word count: 598 warning(s): none just pure fluff

Chan:

He would just look at you dumbfounded: what are you two going to do with these chickens? He knows you didn't think it through, he isn't mad at you, secretly loves all of them and wants to buy at least the same amount so you can have little chicken pairs.

Already thinking about buying a farm far away from everyone where you can have goats and baby cows, maybe some horse and of course dogs and cats. Heck, he would even buy you a whole zoo just to make sure his little princess has all the animals she can possibly think of.

Minho:

He would tease you with feeding them to his kids, enjoying how your face scrunches up from the thought. Deep inside, he is intrigued by them, and slowly warming up to the idea of having a bunch of baby chicks.

He also says up until the AM to look for chicken coops and things he can build for them so they can play and have a comfortable place to stay. He is trying to be secretive about it to surprise you and to not blow up his cover.

Changbin:

He would literally hold back tears and show you all the pictures he has saved on his phone about baby farm animals. He is a softie and you always knew it.

He names all of them silly names and feeling quite happy about them until one poops on his floor… he might be in for a wild ride with figuring out how to potty-train chickens.

Hyunjin:

He already wants to make sketches of you and your kids, thinking about poses he could have you hold them so he can make sure he gives justice to your beauty. Feels overjoyed by this new milestone you two accomplished: having a dozen of little feathery kids.

Han:

For a solid minute, he laughs, not thinking you are being for real. Then, when he realized he was happy, he named all of them names like pip, peep, squeak, lil pip jr. and the list could go on and on.

After a week or so of having them, he started “teaching” them how to fly, making you watch it in horror. But let's face it, he is so clumsy he has dropped one or two of them accidentally when you weren't home.

Felix:

As soon as you opened the box, his eyes light up, living that Stardew fantasy with you. He makes lots of pictures of them, you with the chicks, and his own SKZOO. He sends the latter picture to the group chat with the boys, announcing that BbokAri somehow ended up being a father and that the mother left them. You just laughed at the soap opera he suddenly started to write about his own merch plushie, but you didn't stop him.

Seungmin:

You showed him while the others were there as well, bragging about your new-found family with Minnie. Everyone was over the moon about how adorable they were, except your boyfriend, who simply told Felix that he thinks they are his kids, delivering it with the stone-cold expression he mastered probably at birth.

I.N.:

He gets super excited, although finds it a bit silly. Said a joke along the lines of must've cheated with Felix's SKZOO, which earned a chuckle from you.

As he starts to play with them, one immediately pinches him with its beak making you forget about your kids and making sure that your boyfriend is okay, babying him just a little more.

[pixierainbows]

Hi Pixie! I have a question about Pixie’s experience with AAC. When Pixie first used AAC, what did Pixie say? Did Pixie ask for a drink or a bucket? Did Pixie say “guinea pig” or something silly? Did Pixie use it alone or only with a speech therapist?

My sister is nonverbal with severe intellectual disability. My sister has AAC iPad but does not have it always with her. Her caretakers will put it away most of the time because she does not use it to say what she needs, she only taps buttons that say random sentences. When her caretaker asks “do you want a drink?” My sister clicks the button “I have 2 cats.” And she clicks it again and again and again.

My sister’s caretakers say my sister does not understand AAC is for communicating, or maybe she thinks it is only a toy to make sounds. I think my sister can use AAC for both funny sounds and to say what she needs. Maybe if her caretaker let her keep the iPad with her always, my sister would have more communication.

Thank you for reading and even bigger thank you for answering (if Pixie can answer. It is okay if Pixie cannot)

When Pixie first get Pixie own AAC . is take very long time before Pixie touch buttons other than guinea pig .

For long long time Pixie just "say " things like “cow donkey llama alpaca pony horse Friesian draft horse goat pig sheep chicken rooster turkey duck “ and laugh at all the sounds pixies fingers can make .

take even more time after that , for Pixie touch buttons to actually communicate .

Pixie take long long time to realize could actually communicate with people , that is was possible thing . then even more time for Pixie to have reason to Want . to have reason to try communicate .

now , Pixie mostly not see any reason to try communicate with most people , seem like waste of time so pixie just not .

Can not know if more time with AAC device would mean more likely for sister to communicate . with device or some other ways .

Very possible sister is "babbling" with AAC device . like babies do with mouth . could also be play with make sounds . both are important part of babies learn to talk .

But . Can say . For Sure . if AAC device is not with person always , then person will never learn AAC device or communication with device .

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I have a question.

I’m drawing an orc woman, and here are the animals I drew inspiration from for her design:

I was wondering how I could blend these animals into a humanoid design.

(image description: photos of several animals. these include a highland cow, a large horse, some sort of wooly sheep or goat, a donkey, a hippo, and a warthog. end description)

the first step is figuring out which distinct traits of each animal you want to utilize, and what they might have in common. I've made a messy little thought map here about it:

(image description: the same photos as above, arranged in a collage with added photos of hippo teeth and feet. the photos are faded and dark blue lines are drawn over them to trace the main shapes of each animal, alongside connecting arrows and notes pointing out the similarities between some of the animals. end description.)

The highland cow and the sheep both have fluffy hair or wool, and a pair of horns. They are also even-toed hoofed animals, as are the hippo and warthog. the horse and donkey are odd-toed hoofed animals. The hippo and warthog both have really big teeth. All of these animals are ungulates, most of them have large ears and a lot of muscle, and all of them have a long face.

Orcs are usually drawn big and muscular and fat, with big tusks, so the most obvious route here is combining the warthog and hippo teeth somehow. I think the hippo feet are the best bet for orc feet, as they're more flat and soft, easier to adapt to a bipedal design.

an orc that takes features from all these animals will probably have a pretty hairy body, maybe curly hair to reflect the sheep wool. it would also be interesting to see an orc with horns, as that's not super common in most depictions of orcs. I would also suggest leaving the longer face shape rather than trying to make it very short and humanoid.

I've made a couple of test sketches as a visual aid. this is just my concept based on your idea, so your final design will probably look different as you work out what you really want the character to look like.

(image description: a simple sketch page of an orc woman using features from the animals above. She is large and hairy, with extra hair on her wrists and ankles like the horse's fluffy feet. She is wearing her hair in braids and she has a small pair of horns on her forehead. Her nose is long and round with large nostrils. She has long ears. Her teeth are visible as a pair of warthog-like tusks and two big teeth coming out of the front of her lower jaw. A small eye sketch shows horizontal pupils. end description.)

[nerdyneko265]

In honour of the last dungeon meshi Thursday (I know it’s Wednesday, shut up)

Minecraft cooking!

Where I go through the mob bestiary and treat it like a cook book.

Chicken, cow, pig, goat, rabbit, horse, wolf, sheep, cat, cod, salmon, tropical fish, llama- you know what these are, you don’t need me to explain. Both Laios and I are bored, moving on.

Villagers, pillagers, piglins- don’t eat people. I know piglins are half pig but listen. DONT EAT PEOPLE! You know the orcs? This is the same thing.

All zombies ever- technically edible. We’ve all eaten rotten flesh. Senshi would not be proud of us, it’s not very nutritious. Also, cannibalism.

Skeletons- I guess you could make a soup stock. But they’re better for fertilizer.

Vex and allays- ghosts. I don’t think we can make sorbet here either. I don’t think they work like that.

Bats- very small, not much meat. Hard to find and catch. But if you’re in a cave and in a pinch or just curious, sure why not

Puffer fish- cook very carefully. Probably just better for potions. But you can eat puffer fish, your chef just needs to be trained in how to cook it.

Mooshroom- now we’re talking. Beef, but with mushrooms. Comes with mushroom soup too. Usually raised for soup rather than meat, but still a good source of meat that’s pre seasoned.

Squid- mmmmm calamari… Laios enemy… also good for squid ink. I hear it goes well with pasta.

Cave Spider- venomous, could technically remove the poison like with puffer fish and boil the spider but I dont know. Small but have spawners, so you’ve have a steady supply

Spider- not venomous, and bigger. So I guess you could. Probably taste like giant scorpion since they’re both arachnids.

*dont eat spider eyes, they’re poisonous

Endermen- for personal reasons, I will not be eating endermen. They don’t even want to fight unless you antagonize them. More importantly, don’t eat endermen, it’ll probably fuck you up. They’re built for the end and full of chorus fruit. They’re also so skinny, not much to eat there. Ender pearls have a chance of giving you a parasite. And will probably teleport your stomach out of your body. You could try but it’s probably like jerky and you’ll see god.

Incidentally, I think chorus fruit tastes like vanilla

Polar bear- probably very tough meat. Very gamey. Beware though, they eat people too

Iron golem- that’s a robot. Don’t eat metal. DONT EAT REDSTONE! ITS RADIO ACTIVE.

Snow golem- probably makes good ice cream. Don’t eat it. Let it make ice cream. It’s just snow after all. It would just taste like water.

Blaze- it’s more of a spirit than an animal. Good for potion making, probably not tasty. A central core surrounded by rods, maybe that core has some meat on it, probably tastes a little spicy.

Striders- why? Why would you eat these poor babies? What did they ever do to you? They’re probably reptiles, so you could definitely eat them but could you live with that knowledge?

Elder guardian- really old puffer fish. Cut carefully for good sushi. But it’s such a hassel, you’re better off having a puffer fish. Plus, they’re endangered, so like, come on.

Guardian- jokes on you, it’s hollow on the inside. Check the mob bestiary, they have no internal organs. Could probably get some meat from the outer flesh but that’s also the spikes, so beware.

Ender mite- remember those parasites from ender pearls? This is them. Could def cook them though. They’re fair sized and full on meat. You’re probably be tripping balls though.

Ghast- like a squid, but balloon. They are filled with gas, to allow them to fly. So much like a dragon, likely have a gas sac that could contain gases that could ignite, be careful. But sky octopus. Lots of meat.

Magma cube- slime but spicy. Magma cream is probably yummy. We know it’s ok to ingest because it’s in potions, so I think it should be ok to eat. Just wait got it to cool a little

Slime- senshi has recipes for these buggers.

Shulker- I can only assume it tastes like living armour. It’s definitely a mussel

Silverfish- it’s a bug, it’s big, enjoy.

Wither skeleton and the wither- please, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT EAT THE WITHER! THIS IS HOW WE GET THE PLAGUE! YOURE GOING TO GET WITHERING AND DIE!

Sniffer- I know they’re really big, I know they’re probably full of meat and they have eggs, but look at their little faces. Could you really eat them?

The Ender dragon- I mean, you beat her, might as well I guess. Apparently dragon is delicious. But also, probably full of the end, probably going to fuck yup up a bit

And now, for the big one

Creeper- as we all know, creeper skin feels like dry, crunchy leaves. It’s a moss monster with a tnt block inside. So, if you carefully cut around the explosive, you now have a very dangerous vegetable. Thick “meat”, might make a good salad.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[caffeinated-beverage]

HCs for HWS U.kraine!!!

BODY

_______

-She is both fat and buff at the same time

-When not flexing her muscles, she just looks chubby. But, once her muscles are flexed, she is very very very buff and muscular.

-She is VERY VERY strong, too

-For an idea of how strong my U.kraine is, she could throw a tractor and suplex a 300LBS grown man if she wanted to.

-And, by the way, even though she is so strong, she is also quite gentle most of the times. She is well-aware how strong she is, and can control it quite well!

-Just don’t fuck with her

-She gives very strong bear-like hugs

-Also, she’s naturally a brunette, bit bleaches her hair blonde using box hair bleach (it’s ok tho, bc I do the exact same thing IRL)

___HOBBIES___

_______________

-She knits, crochets, and sews. She also often makes her OWN clothing!! :D

She even gifts homemade clothes to her loved ones often times <3

-She especially likes to do her knitting/crocheting/sewing while watching tv dramas <3

-Ever since she learned that Liet & Lat.via likes oversized sweaters, she ALWAYS gives them oversized sweaters! <3

-One of her hobbies is making homemade gifts for her loved ones and seeing them happy <3

-She quite enjoys playing volleyball

-She also enjoys painting (even if she isn’t Leonardo da Vinci levels of painting & ends up making a mess all over herself ^o^), embroidery, baking, solving crosswords & puzzles, reading, watching TV dramas, scrapbooking, patchwork, making little ragdolls, & playing horror games (there are LOTS of things she does!!)

-She is also a good singer, and I imagine she can also sing opera well :)

-I also think she would be good at DDR for some reason :D

___PETS/ANIMALS___

_____________________

-She found a stray cat wandering nearby her house a little while back, and so she gave it food, which led to her giving it food EVERY day, which led to it coming inside her house, which led to it getting in her bedroom and sleeping on her bed, aaaand now she has a cat! She didn’t really give it a proper name though, but, she still loves it very very much <3 she just calls it “koshenya”, which I am p sure is just Ukrainian for “kitty���

-On her farm, she also has chickens, cows, sheep, goats, ducks, pigs, rabbits, turkeys, donkeys, & horses. She also has, maybe a shepherd dog or two. And, also, she has BEES!! :D

-She would also gift some milk, eggs, & wool to her loved ones, but she won’t give milk to my Lat.via bc he lactose intolerant :’((

-Nothing will wake her up faster than the sound of a cat about to hack up a hairball xD

[weathermanpolls]

By the laws of Uplift, uplifted species remain client, (i.e. slave), species for their masters for 100,000 years. I didn't write the laws. And the fact Humans didn't write the laws is a main point of conflict in the series.

Mouse / Rat: Small, (even after uplift, likely 2-3 feet), dextrous, intelligent. Make great clerks or domestic servants.

Cat / Dog: Traditional companion animals. Friendly, supportive. Cats are more adventurous, while Dogs are more loyal.

Centaur / Minotaur: Extremely strong and enduring. Centaurs can be ridden. Will go stir crazy if you don't keep them moving. Minotaurs are even stronger but also more suited to a sedentary lifestyle. And most Cows are bred for milk.

Sheep / Goat: Between the Centaur / Minotaur and Cat/Dog hybrids. Good, solid servants. Goats are more playful and adventurous, while sheep are more content with the quiet life. Both are also milk breeds.

Dolphin: A playful, clever aquatic species. Alright, let's be honest, we're going to make mermaids. We all want to make mermaids. We could justify it by having them tend to submerged fields, or act as fishermen. Maybe mix in a bit of DNA from the larger whales to make them better singers.

Crow / Raven: Crow and Ravens are very thoughtful. I'm thinking keep crows small assistants (hand-sized Daitengu), while turning ravens into larger guards and messengers (2-3 ft tall, 4-5 ft wingspan? Karasu-Tengu).

Parrots: Very intelligent and chatty. Would make great callcentre workers. You wouldn't need to waste money on stupid things like floors.

Cocks (male) are exceptionally brash and militant, while the Chickens (female) don't do much rather than cluck and lay eggs. So, secretarial pool that you can keep the eggs from? And an airmobile military force.

Naga: Slender and adaptable. Low metabolism and have to get a good portion of their heat from external sources.

Note: No great apes, because they would fill a similar niche, and we would be fucked if they got uppity. Elephants are quite intelligent, but also costly to feed. I did the math for Centaur / Minotaurs, and it's like $6/day to feed the, but Elephants? Also no food animals.

[maddiem4-writes]

Midway

I stayed up a bit later on this one than I wanted too, but I really got into a flow that I didn't want to interrupt. The more I write these characters, the more I like them. It feels like a good sign to me, that I can't advance the plot without naturally writing character development, and vice versa.

Anyways. You know the drill by now. Close your eyes. It's the Fourth of July, 1982, at the New York State Fair. The heart of the fairgrounds is a busy place, even when it's not bannered red-white-and-blue. Teenagers kiss in the shade behind the portable haunted house, and the line to ride the bumper cars feels eternal. And on the border of the Expo Center, a little girl is closing her eyes, just like you...

The smell hit my nose before I even opened my eyes. Animals, farm animals: cow farts and goat piss and pig muck and horse shit. But also hay, and dust, diesel exhaust, and lilting above it all, cutting through it, the deep-fried irresistible smell of funnel cake. The chaos was wild, alive, constantly teetering between enticement and disgust.

I didn't waste my first moments of sight on Alan. Alan could manage himself. Holding a hand was a skill I'd mastered at age 4, and if my math was right, in here? This particular memory? I was all of 11 years old.

I'd dipped into this memory very briefly that morning, just barely enough to grab a snack and go. I was a little too used to my powers, maybe, only appreciating them when I had a guest to interrupt my routine - to put the magic back into the magic. Looking around me now, I felt the wonder all over again, stepping into this big, impossibly big world, with my whole future ahead of me. It was a lost world, and I'd stolen it back, an immaculate archive woven into my soul.

The Ferris wheel loomed over us, and that terrifying tilting thing I'd never had the guts to ride, and to my left, holding my hand, so did Alan. It was strange to see him so tall. Holding my right hand, was my father. Alan turned to see us and froze in shock, jumped, and I gripped his hand insistently.

"I told you, you have to hold on, idiot." I glared up at him, making a point of it.

"Just… what? Okay first of all you are so tiny and a child. That is not a move you pull right after sex, I shouldn't even fucking have to say that. Nobody should have to say that!" He was backed off as far as he could go, our arms taut. "And like, second, is this your fucking dad?" He looked up, bug-eyed. "Sir I swear this is not what it looks-"

I yanked his arm close enough to stomp on his foot. "Can it, dumbass. We're in a memory. I'm still me, and he can't really react to you. Be cool."

He was hyperventilating, which I took as a sign of direct disobedience. "Oh yeah? Be cool, huh? I've never been in a memory before. I don't know what's going on! And he's looking at me!" My hapless visitor pointed repeatedly, although once would have gotten the point across. "Why's he looking at me?"

I sighed. "People in memories are like… actors. Placeholders that just kind of wait for cues and lines, so they can do their cues and lines. Watch." I looked up at my memory-dad, and he looked at me, with that soft dopey face of his, the kind of deep-set eyes that are brought to you by the letter Beer.

I looked into his eyes and told him, matter of factly, "Ooga booga woogidee woo." Waved my hand in front of his face, and he didn't even flinch.

I took it further. "Mommy sucks off your brother every Thursday night." Memory-Dad's smile never changed, as peaceful and adoring as ever. Man had the patience of a saint, or maybe more aptly, a golem.

"I'll be damned," Alan muttered in wonder behind me. I turned, and he'd settled down almost immediately. I think if he'd had a notepad handy, he'd be filling it full of scribbles on the spot. "Can you control him?"

I smirked. "Nah. He'll just wait forever until I say my line. This place is halfway between a recording and a simulation. He's not reacting, because none of this is what I said next in '82."

"Obviously not. Although to be fair, you do have a bit of Bad Seed energy. It's not unthinkable."

I chuckled. "There's only one thing that's unthinkable, Alan. Can you guess it?"

He grimaced. "Can I guess the unthinkable thing? I doubt it."

I leaned toward him, with a gap-toothed grin. "THE PSYTANIC!"

He groaned, and I stuck my tongue out at him. "Wow. I didn't figure you for awful puns, Lizzy. That's a clunker."

"Oh, you love it," I said, rolling my shoulders in sweet victory.

"You wish!" But he was smiling. I got him. "Truly, you are full of terrifying and terrible talents." He bowed theatrically.

"Yeah." My smile sagged a little. "I didn't come up with that one though. It was… one of my dad's favorites." I looked up at his automaton. "You would have liked him, I think. The real version I mean."

"Maybe," he shrugged. "Kind of a bold claim, for someone who doesn't know me much yet."

"No, but I knew him. He loved everybody, everybody loved him. Well, I guess there were some exceptions. He sure managed to marry one." His image continued to wait, patient and peaceful. It was starting to hurt, to look at his eyes. "I think there had to be a time when mom and dad loved each other. Like, logically, right? Just… sucks that I missed it."

"Yeah." Alan stared at his shoes as the Midway crowd hummed around us. A handful of people screamed distantly as their roller coaster cars ticked over from lift to descent. The popcorn and cotton candy and overtaxed toilets waged war over the air, and the flies buzzed for all of it. Only we stood still. "…. yeah."

I squeezed my dad's hand. He looked at me attentively. I said, softly, "Hey. Can we get slushies?" I felt very, very small.

He nodded, and brightened up with excitement. "Sure, pumpkin, I got a few bucks budgeted for snacks, and I think a slushie would count." He leaned down, until he booped my nose with his. "Do you want…. asphalt flavor?"

I giggled. "No!"

"Do you want… barf flavored?"

I shook my head vigorously. "Nooo! Dad!"

"Do you want… roadkill chipmunk with a cigarette ash swirl, all topped with-"

"Dad!" I suddenly interrupted. This part… would hurt. "I'm not a little kid anymore. I just wanna see what flavors they have, okay? Don't be…" I didn't want to say this line. I was glad I didn't need to get the tone right, and so I said it soft, a soreness in my throat. "Don't be stupid."

His face fell. "Oh." He stepped back a pace, staring ahead. He nodded quietly. "That's how you… okay." He stood up, peered around over the crowd lifelessly. "It's over there. It's… it's over there."

I followed him, and Alan followed me, and at the cart, I picked lime.

We all sat down at a bench together. We were a quiet pack. Alan obviously couldn't order anything, and I didn't feel much like rewarding myself, so I handed mine to him. Dad got peach. We all sat there and watched the people mill and march around us.

Alan put the cup down after a few long sips. "Hey. Look, I'm… sorry about what I said earlier. The bad seed thing. I hope that's not close to home or anything."

I shrugged. "Doesn't bother me. I mean, I joked about Uncle Irwin, and that whole mess was real. Mom was a skank. It's old news, it's fine." I couldn't mask my voice well. I don't think Alan believed me.

He leaned back on the bench. "If it's fine, it's fine." He tapped the straw to his lips, thinking. "I just don't want to say anything hurtful."

I rubbed my temple with my free hand. "God! Can't you see that's a hundred times worse? Don't pity me. I've got a better afterlife than your actual life, if your life was twenty times better. I outgrew all these shitbirds around me." I waved my hand around at my past. "So stop treating me like glassware. These fucks couldn't break me, and neither can you."

He leaned back. "Okay, okay! Jesus." He scratched his head, and winked at me. "Irwin, though. Your mom hoed out for a guy named Irwin."

I laughed, and tossed my hair back. "Well I hoed out for an Alan, and really, who sleeps with an Alaaaan?" I needled him. "The only thing worse would be being an Alan!"

"Heyyyy, what's wrong with being an Alan?" he feigned a great offense. "I've been an Alan all my life, I'll have you know."

"It's a dweeb name! Alan. Look at us, the cuck, the dweeb and the ho."

"A fearsome triumvarate."

"They'll never know what fucked 'em."

"Hear, hear!" He toasted the air in front of me, since I didn't have a drink. Or, well, he had my drink. After a triumphant slurp, he put the half-full cup back down. "On that note, strategy. I haven't forgotten the conversation we're actually here to have."

"Right. You first, wiz kid. What are you up to, in that basement of yours?" My lips curled up, I was genuinely curious.

"A broad variety of things - the broadest possible, really." He cleared his throat. "That's kind of the point. I'm… curious."

"Curious?"

"Yeah, curious. Every type of magic has a feel to it, and details to know, and catches to navigate. Conventional wisdom is, okay, there's too much magic in the world to know it all. Well… fuck that. I don't just want to know everything in the flat and hypothetical sense that I read some words on a page. You don't really know it until you do it, and I want to know… everything."

I tapped my fingers on the wooden table. "Really?" I was fascinated. "'Everything' is… broad, even to read. But you want to do. You realize that your little project is going to include some real fucked up shit, right?"

Alan smiled thinly. "You have no idea."

I found myself very impressed with Mr. Shaw.

He turned to look straight at me. "I think I've incriminated myself enough for one long-past Independence Day, don't you? Now spill, Miss Elizabeth. What's up your sleeve, that you need a half-amateur sorcerer to make it happen?"

The wood was smooth under my slow-moving fingers, polished by heavy use and greyed by sun-bleaching. "I keep my interests close to my chest. But… well… there's a certain spell I'd like to acquire. It has some interesting potential if you put enough juice into it."

He sucked down another sip. "What kind of spell?"

I smiled sweetly at him. "Love."

"That's suspiciously mundane. What are you expecting to happen by amping it up to 11?"

"I'm expecting it to work, Alan. No maybes. Oh, and I'll need to track someone down, but I think I can mostly handle it on my own, unless you have some very interesting contacts."

"Funny you should mention that…"

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

"Because, if you can help me with the teeny, tiny resurrection I've been working on…" He winked, and finished off the slushie.

[clairethecutepup]

Chapter 3: Who Gets Stuck with the Buck?

Click "keep reading" for chapter and author's commentary.

We decided a farm would be the best way to get rid of Rocko, but what kind of farm would want him? It takes a couple days, but Cio manages to find a farm that’ll help us out. Good thing we had Ryuketsu to help keep Rocko in the pen before that, otherwise Cio might not even have a pizzeria anymore! Too bad Ryuketsu can’t help us out with the traveling part, though, since the farm is kinda far from Wolfuchs. It’s not gonna be super long, but it’s not something you can really walk to-- especially when you have a goat that could get away and cause trouble. 

Luckily, Skyler agreed to give us a ride-- even after Rocko popped one of the tires with his horns. Yeah, Skyler wasn’t happy, but I think that just made him wanna help out even more, so he wouldn’t have to worry about Rocko ever again, either. After he replaced the tire, he finally drove us to the farm. Ryuketsu sat with Rocko in the truck’s bed, while the rest of us sat inside the car. After we got there, Skyler stayed behind to practice some sketch work of the country, while we went on ahead. The farm looks just like what they’re supposed to: a barn, a fence, crops, animals, and a house. The farmer, Johan, probably lives in there and we saw he definitely did, after Cio rang the doorbell.

“So, where’s this little rascal you need taken off your mitts?” he looks at us, before he looks at Rocko, “Ah, there’s ‘El Diablo’ himself.”

He tries to take Rocko, but pulls his hand back when Rocko tries biting him. If Ryuketsu wasn’t holding his collar, Rocko probably would’ve tried using his horns instead.

“Whoa-ho, we really do have a fighter here!” Johan laughs, “But don’t you worry none, I’ve dealt with crazier, believe it or not. On the bright side, I know he can at least help with driving some predators off, every now and then. Now, why don’t we get ‘im settled in?”

We follow Johan inside the barn. It has lots of pens and lots of animals: pigs, cows, horses, sheep, and other goats. Johan takes us to that last one.

“Welcome to your new herd, fella,” he pats the fence, “You may wanna get all that aggression out because Betty here probably won’t stand for it.”

Rocko and Betty already hate each other: she tries headbutting through the fence, while Rocko tries to do the same.

“Uh, m-maybe this’s a bad idea…?” Sparky gulps, “We wouldn’t want him to hurt your other animals…”

“Trust me, it’s him who should be fearin’ Betty,” Johan takes Rocko from Ryuketsu, “But first, we’ll have to make sure he’s clean for a few good days. Don’t want him spreading anythin’ to the others here. Come on, buddy, I got the perfect pen for you to stay in, in the meantime.”

Rocko stays in place and won’t budge, and that makes Johan raise one of his eyebrows.

“Oh ho, so you wanna have some fun then?” he grins and uses both hands to grab Rocko’s collar, “Let’s tussle, hombre!”

Johan and Rocko start fighting: after Rocko pulls him back, Johan pulls Rocko back and they repeat it. The rest of us just watch from behind Rocko.

“Uh, a-are you sure you don’t want help…?” Sparky gulps, “Ryuketsu could--”

“Nope, I’ve faced ornerier!” Johan says, “You just gotta get ‘em down, and--”

Suddenly, Rocko lets Johan pull him over, so his horns can ram into Johan’s chest. He gasps and falls onto the ground, before Rocko makes him gasp again by jumping on his chest and running past him. Leena wants to help and chases after Rocko, but accidentally steps on Johan’s chest and makes him gasp, again.

“Do not worry, I will catch him!” she jumps onto Rocko, “Got hi-- WHOA!”

Rocko starts kicking and throws Leena into the fire alarm button, which’s beside one of the entry doorways. The alarm goes off and sprinklers start spraying, so all the scared animals run out of their pens’ back doors into the outdoor fences.

“Why you--!” Johan stands up, “Get back here!”

He chases after Rocko, while we stay behind.

“Oh no, my clothes are all soaked…” Sparky grabs his shirt, then glances at the fur on his arm, “And I’ll smell like a wet dog…”

Cio looks down at Faxie, while his fox ears hang on his head, “Well, it’s a good thing I made you waterproof, huh, buddy?”

Faxie yips from inside Cio’s overall pocket, while trying to shake himself off, even though it's still raining. Ryuketsu sneezes and shivers, but I’m fine and even like the water! Water has always been my element-- except baths. I dunno, I never like having to wash my hair and stuff.

“Hurry, guys!” Leena pushes us all outside, “We have to save Johan!”

When we’re outside, we watch Johan and Rocko run in circles. Then Rocko jumps over a fence, and Johan follows him into the corn plants. We stand behind the fence and everyone looks worried…

“Do not worry, Johan,” Leena climbs onto it, “I will help you for real, this time!” she falls over and lands on her back, “Ow…” she stands back up, “Do not worry, I will still save you!” she runs into the corn-- and then flies back out and lands on the top of the fence, on her back, “Ow, again…”

Rocko and Johan come back, before jumping over the fence, but Johan (accidentally) slams his hand onto Leena’s stomach while doing it.

“Oof…” she groans, “I am not good at ‘saving,’ guys…”

“Leena!” Sparky asks, “Are you alright?!”

“You little devil!” Johan yells at Rocko, “You ruined some of my good stalks!”

Rocko crashes through Johan’s house door and Johan follows him inside. We just stand outside and stare at his house-- except Leena ‘cause she’s still lying on the fence. Uh oh, whatever’s happening inside the house right now doesn’t sound good… Johan finally comes back, while carrying Rocko, and looks super mad… I hide behind Sparky and he looks nervous, Cio and Faxie gulp at the same time, and Ryuketsu actually has his eyes open all the way. Johan doesn’t say anything, while he gives Rocko to Ryuketsu. Then, he finally yells, “Get that menace outta here!!” and points away from here… 

Oh no, what do we do now…? Well, Cio has a new idea: he’s gonna give Rocko to the butcher shop. It’s awful, though! It makes me remember wolfdogs being put down ‘cause their owners and other people decided they became too much trouble. It’s not fair if an animal dies for causing trouble, especially when people aren’t always forced to die for doing bad things themselves-- even when they do worse stuff! Even the others think it’s bad, too, and they don’t like Rocko, either!

Sparky asks, “Couldn’t we try one more place, at least?” 

“I know he is a mean goat, Cio,” Leena says, “but that does not mean you can be so mean, too!”

“I don’t like it either, guys,” Cio sighs, “but what else can I do with him? If anyone actually did take him, they’d probably end up doing the same…”

Faxie whimpers from the top of Cio’s head.

He looks up at Faxie, “Oh, not you, too, man…”

We stop in front of the butcher shop and all give Cio one last sad face, except for Ryuketsu ‘cause he’s helping drag Rocko to the store. Cio holds the door handle and stops, so he can look over his shoulder. He stares at Rocko for a few seconds, before falling onto his knees.

“Oh man, I can’t do it…” his hands fall onto the ground, while his fox ears hang down, “Even if he always seems keen on actually butchering me, I can’t…” he looks at Rocko, “Alright, man, I won’t send you off to wind up in hotdogs, hamburgers, or whatever else they put goats in…”

Rocko doesn’t seem to be paying attention, though. He’s only interested in “baaa-ing” and waving his tongue around, again.

 Leena grins and pats Cio’s back, “I think he is thanking you, Cio.”

“But if I can’t even use him for meat,” Cio stands up, “what else can I use him for?”

Someone gasps, but it’s not any of us.

“Sending off poor animals to the slaughter?” Ricky suddenly walks toward us, “For shame, I expected better from so-called ‘animal lovers,’” he does the “shame” thing with his hands. He then laughs and lowers them, before putting them into his pockets, “Relax, I know it’s fine to love animals on plates, too.”

“Now, now, Richard,” Grayson is here, too, “I’m certain they have their proper reasons,” he looks down at Cio, “But I must admit, I’m surprised to see you willingly partaking in the death of an animal, Dear Brother.”

“Yeah, I just didn’t know what else to do with this guy…” Cio rubs his arm, looking like he feels bad, “He keeps attacking everyone and wrecking everything, but I can’t send him off to the butcher shop, either,” he shrugs, “What should I do?”

“Hmm,” Grayson holds his elbow and taps his chin with the other hand, “if he’s one for unleashing a multitude of aggression toward others,” Grayson lowers his hands, “why not enter him in our local goat-fighting tournaments?”

“Don’t worry,” Ricky says, “if anyone gives ya crap over any ‘animal cruelty,’ just ask 'em what they think goats do in the wild."

Sparky asks, "You're sure it doesn’t involve any goats actually being hurt...?" 

"Hey, it ain't like they beat the darn things to make 'em literally butt heads, and they're allowed to run off," Ricky points at Rocko, "So, who cares if people wanna make a buck off their natural tendency to be jerks to each other?"

Rocko suddenly kicks Grayson in the gut, making him hold it and fall down. Hey, that’s my dad you’re hurting!! Cio yells, “Gray!!” as we all look worried.

"Okay, make that as natural jerks to anyone, in general..." Ricky helps Grayson up, "Ya good?"

Grayson coughs, "Mostly..." 

"Um, about the idea, Gray, I’m not so sure, man..." Cio starts thinking, "Even if he's a natural jerk, it still seems mean to make him fight other goats."

"Goat fighting isn't as heinous as it may sound, Cio," Grayson says, "especially with our methods here: the horns are covered to prevent any possible goring, we have people to step in and stop a fight when required, and other safety measures. If it helps you feel better, you'd be helping reduce illegal animal fighting, where the animals are actually tormented and forced into death. After all, why engage in such illegal activities, when our town provides a less legally consequential alternative for gambling and the like?"

Cio looks at Rocko, one last time.

He then says, "... Well, there's nothing else I can really use him for, so okay.”

Ricky told us the skills that goats usually need for fighting: “agility, endurance and power.” We decided to train him back home ‘cause we have lots of space there-- and less people nearby for Rocko to attack instead. We set up some stuff to help train Rocko-- especially a chain and stake, so we definitely could make sure he didn’t start attacking people. Ryuketsu’s holding up a pillow for Rocko to practice ramming into, but he manages to knock Ryuketsu over and jump on top of him. Well, at least Ryuketsu can protect his face with that pillow-- even if I don’t think it’s really working... When Rocko's done with him, he glares at me and Leena next.

“Do not worry, little buddy,” she pats my head, “he cannot get us, when--”

Rocko bites the chain and pulls out the stake, before he runs after us.

Leena picks me up, "Run, little buddy, run!"

Leena puts me on her back, before she climbs up one of our trees. Rocko keeps hitting the tree, but luckily he can’t climb up; but he can knock things over, and that seems to also mean trees ‘cause it cracks and falls down. It doesn’t fall the other way, it just tilts that way; but then it falls in the same direction as our backs, so Leena and I get crushed under it. I managed to watch Rocko jump out of the way, though, so he’s fine. Ow, it’s dark and it hurts under here…

"Guys, are you okay?!" I hear Sparky run over. He then sounds scared, "No, no, no, don't hurt me!"

Leena yells, “Run, Sparky, run!!”

I guess Leena’s able to look out from the tree; but I know Rocko’s probably attacking Sparky now, even if Leena didn’t say anything. I hear Sparky’s screaming getting quieter, so I think he’s trying to reach my house before Rocko gets him. Maybe Rocko doesn't need any training to be a good fighter ‘cause he’s pretty tough already. 

… 

You don’t need to worry about broken bones or other bad stuff, as long as you don’t feel pain, right? 

… 

Or, don’t feel anything, at all…?

[End Chapter 3]

***********

I think it's gonna be easier to tell I'm submitting stories-- and not just spamming the same drawing over and over again, for whatever reason --as long as I put the chapter numbers and titles at the very top.

I also worry Claire came off a bit too like the, "LOL, so quirky~!" type of girls/characters you sometimes see in media, when it came to the final few sentences there... I assure you: she's asking about pain's correlation to physical concerns, or lack thereof, in complete earnest and fearful curiosity, and not in a goofy and ditzy tone of comedy. Trust me, that kid won't even emote, if she doesn't have a strong enough emotion. Not like apathy, just a shy and quiet kid is all.

It's also fun to write in a more limited perspective, so I should try it more often. I used to mix in a bit of an "omniscient" feel, back when I utilized 2nd Person Narration instead, but that omni-mixture died the day my old narration preferences did.

Also, as for the "dad" remark: Grayson is not Claire's biological father-- which also means that Cio is just Claire's best friend and not her uncle, mind you --Grayson is, instead, her main father figure and arguable step-father, despite no marriage involved.

[notdingalingalingalingrita]

there are so many lives to live

[yew--berries]

fully agree theres a really interesting video i watched a while ago of someone playing that "Better Than Adventure" mod and their takeaway was just like. its good? they didnt feel like it revolutionized everything ut was just another mod and another way to play and most importantly just another iteration of the same game weve all been playing for the last. 13 years???? its no trick of having to add more armours or less blocks anything its just that after a while you get really efficient at playing a game ur so used to and then inevitably you get a bit bored of playing like that the same over and over.

ive said this before and it seems like its something ill stick with a while that i think the things minecraft really could benefit from the most is becoming. more toy if that makes sense? like even when u get into super specific technical stuff its almost all playing with game mechanics over interacting with a set progression system, and so making everything more fun to interact with is really great, id love to be able to like milk/shear goats or have pigs and cows eat grass too, we see it a little bit in certian places like how rabbits and horses drop leather on top of cows but I really think it could be taken so much further. It would also help the things in the game that arent necissarily problems or even bloat exactly but exist as sorta one trick ponies that only interact with anything under super specific scenarios (frogs are a prime example of this being able to basically only interact with htemselves and slimes/magmacubes, honestly maybe thats part of why the firefly loss hurt So much, it left them feeling way empiter of a mob than otherwise) but yeah. i really do think much more than shiny progression items could ever help would working to make the world more variable and interactive

A lot of "Minecraft is BAD" videos are really annoying because, like, there's actually a lot of things that could use fixing, yes, but you're just trying to turn this into 3D Terraria. I think a lot of people who make these videos forget that most Minecraft players are intrinsically motivated, rather than extrinsically. It's a sandbox game at heart, the vanilla experience does not need highly-controlled level progression.

[beesbeesbees]

On coping with failure

A good friend of mine pointed out (rightfully) that I’d been doing a whole lot of talking about the game I want to make, and doing things kinda-sorta adjacent to it like working out details and the visual presentation (I’ll write about that in a later post), but not a whole lot of actually learning the engine. So I decided to really buckle down and give Godot a try.

After all, you can’t make a game with nothing but a design document - you need practical experience. And since I had next to no experience actually using the engine as opposed to watching videos, it was time to build that experience.

So I watched more of GDQuest’s Getting Started With Godot in 2021 playlist, most notably up to the “How to use Godot’s signals” video. I figured that was about all I needed to do some really basic playing around.

On the one hand, I was correct - on the other hand, I wasn’t ready for something like 3 hours of banging my head against a wall trying to get extremely basic things to work. (Given my prior experience with learning coding that was more or less exactly this, you’d think I would know better by now.)

Let’s backtrack a bit. Godot games, as far as I understand them, are largely composed of three things:

Scenes

Nodes

Signals

Nodes are your simplest building blocks. Scenes are a bit of a misnomer, because they’re more like... a container for nodes. If a scene is a toolbox, then nodes are the tools inside.

Despite the name “scene”, they are not related to scenery (I mean, they can be, but not inherently). A scene can be practically anything - so for example, a player character, an enemy, a stat bar, or, yes, your game’s scenery.

A good example is the protagonist of your game. Your Mario or your Link. They are a “scene”, as odd as that sounds. So, this scene might have a sprite node (your character’s appearance), a collision node (the hitbox), an audio node (sound that plays when you jump or get hurt), etc.

Again, it’s basically a box of parts - any components that a player character needs to function. The scene itself is a mere container and a label. Anything in your game that has a few interlocking parts, even if it’s simple? Probably a scene.

So once we’ve made our player character’s scene, what do we do with that? Well, the neat thing about scenes is that once you make a scene, you can drag them into *other* scenes. If you have an overworld scene, you can drag your player character scene in, then some enemy scenes, and an item scene... et cetera. In other words, you design various parts of your game, then put them all together in a bigger scene.

And you can use as many instances of a single scene as you want. Want 4 goombas? Drag the goomba scene in 4 times. And if your Goomba turns out to have a bug in its behavior, fixing the original Goomba scene will automatically fix it for all 4 of those Goombas.

Another neat thing is that scenes can act like nodes. In other words, you can take simple parts, create a slightly more complex object, then put it inside of a bigger object. Maybe you make an Oil Pan scene and an Engine Block scene and you add those together to make an Engine scene. Which then becomes part of your Car scene, which also has four Tire scenes, and a Wheel scene, which in itself is in a Garage scene... et cetera.

There’s no end to this nesting. You can go as simple or as complex as you want with it. It’s all made in the service of making parts of your game easier to design, reuse, and debug.

For example, you could make a base Animal scene for behavior you know you want all animals to have (like walking, eating, drinking water). Then you make a Cow scene with the Animal scene in it, but now you add some features unique to cows. And a Goat scene that does the same with features unique to goats, a Horse scene, etc. You didn’t have to program in those basic features for each animal because you created that “part” and reused it.

But it’s kind of overwhelming. And the terminology, to be frank, kind of sucks. “Scene” is just a really unnecessarily confusing term. I think it’d be much easier if you called nodes “attributes” and scenes “objects” or something, but I’m sure those words are taken by other game engines so it’d get confusing? I don’t know.

It takes a bit of getting used to. And to be honest, it’s part of why I bounced off Godot a few times. But I feel a bit more comfortable with it now.

So! Signals. Signals are how your scenes (and the nodes within) *talk* to each other. In other words, if we were making Super Mario in Godot, and Mario jumps on a goomba, how do we have Mario’s scene talk to the Goomba’s scene?

The Mario scene has a hitbox node. It detects collision, checks if it’s from the bottom (so Mario jumping on something instead of running into it), and sends out a signal. It says, hey whatever I jumped on, you should probably die now? And the Goomba scene receives that and is like, “Yeah man” and deletes itself. It’s also received by the sound node that plays a fun little noise. It’s ALSO received by the score scene, which increases score, and sends a signal to the UI scene, which is supposed to update every time the score changes.

Or maybe you jumped on spikes instead. So the hitbox node would need to check if it was an enemy you jumped on, or spikes. And if it’s spikes, it’d have to send a message to Mario’s health node to make him either lose his mushroom or die, and that would send a message to the sound node, saying “play either this sound or that sound”. Et cetera.

Once you wrap your head around it all, it’s not too bad. But there are problems like... picking the wrong node for something, because you don’t know what to choose. Or something not working and you don’t know why. Or having to redo an entire thing because you were stupid and didn’t set it up right.

Or... maybe you went about it in a really inefficient way just because you didn’t think about it right in the first place, because programming and ANY software development means learning to think about things in the most efficient ways.

These are normal steps. They’re all part of learning. You can’t really sidestep them unless you’re watching tutorials that teach you off the bat the most efficient ways to do things, but even then, you’re going to need to go off script and make your own mistakes if you want to make games beyond Baby’s First Unity Platformer.

And God, it’s normal, but it can be really irritating when it takes you three hours to do something that feels like it should’ve taken - and will, in the future - only 30 minutes.

For a bit of an odd segue...

I’ve been learning Japanese on and off for a while, and though I can’t say I’m any level of “good” at it, I’m often struck by the parallels between natural language and programming languages.

There’s often this impulse, especially if you’re a newbie, to translate a sentence or sentiment 1:1 into the language you’re learning. A few months ago I was looking up how to say “hello from America” in Japanese, as kind of a friendly “hi, sorry my Japanese sucks ass, I’m a dumbass American” sentiment. It’s a common enough sentiment you hear enough times from other overseas folks that I assumed it was fairly universal - greetings from France, and whatnot. I didn’t really think anything of it.

But Google pretty immediately told me that yes, while you can say アメリカからこんにちは (very literally, “hello from America”), it will always sound artificial and translated because it simply is not a phrase that exists in Japanese. It sounds very normal to a native English speaker, and certainly, the meaning would get across, but it comes across as odd.

It’s sort of like if I said to you, “Not like we’re riding on a rabbit’s back”. From context, you’d probably be able to glean that I meant “We’re not in a hurry”, but it would sound very strange, because that is an idiom that only exists in Finnish, not in English. (Sorry to any Finns if ei tässä jäniksen selässä olla isn’t a common phrase or something, I got that off Reddit.)

In other words, it’s not enough to know how to say every individual word in another language. It’s also about learning the right way to do things. You’re not trying to be a dictionary that translates every word 1:1. You’re trying to learn to think in another language, and abandon your preconceived notions.

You aren’t supposed to think of an English sentence and translate it. You’re supposed to think of a sentiment, a concept, one without language, and in your target language, express that in a way that is natural - as you would in your native tongue.

Programming, and developing in an engine, feels a lot like that.

Programming is not just learning what an if/else loop and a function is. It’s learning to properly consider concepts from the very start, so that you can write them out as efficiently as possible. You have to learn how to break down broader ideas and translate them into code, or code-and-nodes-and-scenes-and-signals-or-whatever.

You have to fundamentally change the way you think about problems. You cannot look at it in the way you’re used to. You have to view it entirely through the lens of whatever tool you’re using. And, using that, you have to figure out the best, most efficient solution for the problem.

And then do that like, 200 times.

And, of course, you can’t learn the most efficient ways until you bang your head against the less efficient ways, and learn why those ways suck, and what ways work for you.

So, then, to the crux of this post: It’s honestly humiliating. And overwhelming. And I took a break for like a fucking week. My first real attempt at working with Godot, and it demoralized me so much that I stopped for a week.

(Pictured: This took me hours, and only one of the buttons works.)

I have trouble with stumbling blocks where if I run into a significant impediment, I get very demoralized and stop. It’s derailed projects for me more times than I can count. I think a lot of ADHD people can probably relate. But the problem is - when you get used to only doing things that don’t involve a lot of failure and risk, it really limits your opportunities.

I just wanted to admit that, like, this is fucking hard, I guess. And it’s okay for it to be hard. It’s okay to be struggling to learn something no matter how old you are. But that I’m not going to give up, either. I made this blog for a reason - to stay accountable.

I am tired of leaving behind a string of failures.

I’m going to go back to watching tutorials, and see if I can’t get a little more insight into what the best way to handle certain things is (like lowering and incrementing stats). Then I’ll come back, and I’ll take another crack at it. And we’ll see what I can do.

And I will probably bang my head against the wall for another 3 hours, and accomplish far less than I’d hoped in that amount of time.

But I will have learned something. Hopefully.

[tethered-heartstrings]

next logical step is they get a little farm. just 2 cows, a couple hens, maybe a goat here or there. will does the messy work while hannibal gets to milk them and grab the eggs in the morning. hannibal gets to care for animals + he knows where his food comes from! win win. maybe they get sheep too, shear them and send off the wool to be made into blankets or sweaters.

they don't get pigs, for reasons

Let me just say cows are a LOT of work and eat a LOT. They are hardier than horses and tend to have less health problems, but they are still an enormous responsibility. And tbh, I don't really see them getting cows, but that is just me.

Chickens are more feasible, and maybe even some ducks as well. They can share a space pretty reasonably and I can see Hannibal wanting the different fat/protein of the eggs for different recipes.

Goats are a more feasible ruminant. Still work but less than cows, based on size and feed. If they get sheep, I imagine Hannibal would learn to utilize the wool himself in some way. He has no interest in keeping animals for profit, he doesn't need the money. He is super extra so I could see him buying all the equipment and making a room in their house just for processing wool and making Will and the dogs sweaters.

I also think they could own pigs just fine. To be honest, it could be a big "fuck you" to Mason. Hannibal and Will would treat their animals with respect and dignity, and not abuse them. Mason was successful because of daddy's money and making people afraid of him. He used pigs and hired guns to do his dirty work. Hannibal and Will do that on their own. Plus, pigs are very intelligent and clean, but they are huge.

Tbh I don't see Hannibal being so hoity toity that he would make Will do the "dirty work". They are equals. If they adopt animals and build a family, the work gets divided fairly. Now if Will preferred that part of the care over the rest, Hannibal would give it to him. But I honestly see them splitting the work evenly.

And as much as Hannibal likes to control what he eats, there is a limitation. He can't grow and raise everything he consumes; that is way more work than a single person or even a couple can manage for the variety Hannibal wants. It is possible if you have very limited ingredients, but he would never keep a pantry so small.

I think the key is Will would want them to be rescues of some kind. Most shelters deal in domestic small animals with some exotics (usually rabbits or guinea pigs). I don't see Will being comfortable adopting anything from a breeder, or adopting anything that could feasibly be adopted by someone else (ie chicks at a fair or something). Not saying there are no rescue cows or chickens, but most of those animals that are "surrendered" like that are not pets but are food animals so they just get slaughtered.

Realistically I see Hannibal wanting to put more effort into growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc. rather than animals for their products.

[luv-eddiediaz]

Hi. Me again, with my obsession of cowboy Eddie and city Buck. 

I was driving around the country last night looking for some cool rocks to put in my yard (I live in town, but like 20 minutes from all the ranches and wide open spaces), and I had like a Buddie version of a Hallmark movie playing in my head the whole time. 

Imagine with me:

Buck has been living in NYC. He’s been working at some art gallery and dating Abby and living with her in her fancy loft while she sculpts, but something happens and she still needs to go find herself, so off she goes to abandon our boy, who, after a couple of months, and some conversations with his friends, realizes she isn’t going to come back, and he sets off to start over. 

He basically throws a dart at a map, and it lands on El Paso, and so that’s where he packs his bags to go. He gets a job at a local bar, and rents a room in the back. He doesn’t think El Paso is going to be for him, so he’s just going to work a few weeks until he can figure out where he wants to go and has some more money saved up to get there.

He notices that every other night, a dark haired man comes in and orders a whiskey, neat and two beers. He sits alone and doesn’t talk to anyone except the girl who works at the bar with Buck at night (I’ve named her Desiree). To Buck, he seems kind of sad. 

One night, Desiree is off, and it’s Just Buck. The guy comes in and Buck brings him his whiskey without him having to order. The man tips his hat, and Buck smiles, but they don’t say anything. When he’s finished his whiskey, Buck goes back to him with his draft of Budweiser, and again he tips his hat, and Buck smiles. They don’t talk until Buck brings him last beer. 

“It’s Buck, right?”

“Uh, yea, how did you know?”

“Desiree is my cousin. She’s mentioned you a few times. Doesn’t like you very much.”

Buck laughs, “I didn’t think she did.”

“It’s your shoes. They’re too shiny, and she says you smell too nice.”

“How does someone smell too nice?”

“Girls here are just different than where you come from.”

“Everyone here is different than where I come from.”

And the man laughs so quiet Buck isn’t even sure he’s laughing, and then he holds out his hand, “I’m Eddie.”

“Nice to meet you.” Buck meets his hand, and it’s softer than Buck would have thought given his dirt stained jeans, and his small drawl, and the cowboy hat he never seems to take off his head. 

So, now whenever Eddie comes in, Buck waits on him, and as the customers dwindle down, Buck ends up sitting in the corner booth with him, and they talk. About New York mostly, about Abby and art, Eddie’s son, and how Buck thinks he might do better in Austin if he was going to stay in Texas. 

“If you change your mind, and want to stay,” Eddie says one night, “I have a shed I converted to a guest house. I’d be more than happy to rent it out to you.”

Buck isn’t sure why, but the thought of Eddie wanting him to stay makes him feel good, and so he decides to take him up on the offer. He meets Eddie at his place one Sunday afternoon, which is this sprawling ranch, and a large, gray stucco house. Eddie shows him around the grounds.

“So, these are Greg and Elizabeth,” he says of two goats nosing at Buck’s shoes, “those are the three Rosies,” he points to three brown cows, “the chicken coop is in the back, but you’ll have to ask Christopher their names, because honestly, I don’t know. I think he keeps changing them.”

“All these animals are yours?”

“Uh, the goats and chickens, yes. One Rosie is a boarder, and the other two are ours until I find them somewhere else to go.” 

“Do you like rescue animals?”

“Sort of. I’m a large animal vet.”

“How did you not tell me this?”

Eddie shrugs and smiles this little half smile Buck has come to adore, “I don’t like talking about myself. And you love talking about yourself.”

“Do not.”

“You really do.”

Then Eddie shows him the shed/house, and Buck decides he’s going to stay there. Eddie also asks if during the day Buck wants to help out answering phones and stuff in the clinic.

Hilarity would ensue with Buck in his fancy sweaters and nice shoes trying to help wrangle the goats and the cows. Sweetness comes when he’s out feeding the chickens with Christopher, and eating sandwiches with him at the reception desk of the vet clinic. 

At some point, he starts wearing flannel shirts, and faded denim. Eddie even buys him his own cowboy hat the day he takes him out horseback riding. 

That same day, they sit by a creek, underneath a tree while their horses graze, and have a more serious conversation. Eddie opens up about his wife’s recent death, but how they had been on the rocks for a while, and Eddie thought maybe they were going to work things out, but she said she didn’t want to and then she had an accident in town. 

Buck doesn’t think he’s crazy when Eddie puts Buck’s hat back on his head and he feels this electricity as they stare at each other, close enough to smell what the other had for breakfast on their breath. He thinks maybe Eddie is going to kiss him, but he doesn’t. And it leaves him disappointed. 

So, of course. with the two of them on this precipice of something, Abby comes back! 

She finds out where Buck is, and goes down to Texas. It’s a Saturday night, and Buck is working at the bar, and it’s a little bit busy, but Christopher is staying the weekend with his aunt and cousins, and Eddie is down there, and between serving Buck lets Eddie try and teach him to line dance, and they shoot a round of pool that lasts forever because Buck keeps having to go work, but it doesn’t matter, because he is having the best time, and he’s seeing Eddie laugh with his whole face, and he knows, he just knows he is falling in love with this man, and only hopes he’s falling in love back. 

They are literally just about to kiss in a dark corner when Buck sees Abby in the middle of the bar, and says her name. He doesn’t forget Eddie is there, but he kinds forgets Eddie is there and walks over to her, gives her a hug.

“What are you doing here?”

“I missed you too.”

“Can we talk?” she asks, “are you busy?”

“I’m working, but I can take a minute; here.” He leads her to a small booth and slides in across from her.

“Look,” she starts, “I’m not sorry I left, because I had to. I was feeling suffocated.”

“By me?”

“No, well, yes, but not you. Just my life, and you happened to be a part of that. I needed to get lost to find myself again.”

“And did you?”

“Yes.”

“It’s been five months, Abby. I left us. I left New York; I started over.”

“I see that. Kind of a weird choice.”

“I like it.”

Because he likes Eddie. 

Shit. Eddie. Buck looks around the bar and sees that he’s gone, and he doesn’t blame him for bailing. He looks back at Abby; at the beautiful curve of her face, her bright green eyes that still pop through the lenses of her glasses. He remembers what it felt like to kiss her lips, and feel her hands through his hair. He never loved anyone the way he loved Abby - she was the first real thing in his life, but he knows now, that Abby never loved him the way he deserved.

“Buck?”

“Thank you for coming here to explain yourself.”

“I was kind of hoping I could talk you into coming to New York with me.”

“Nah, I’m good here. I’ve got all these flannel shirts now, and the concrete would just kill these boots.”

Abby laughs, “not to mention the cowboy.”

“What cowboy?”

“The one that’s been staring at us like he’s ready to pull my hair.”

Buck looks to where Abby is nodding and he wonders how the hell he missed Eddie sitting there.

“Yea, and the cowboy.”

She smiles and kisses Buck on the cheek as she gets up to leave. Buck waits a few seconds until she’s walked out the door and saunters over to Eddie with a woeful look on his face. He sits on the barstool next to him 

“I’m sorry about that,” he says.

“Oh, you’re sorry for dropping me like a dirty rag as soon as you saw your ex-girlfriend? Or is she still your girlfriend?”

“No. She’s my ex. There’s uh, there’s someone else I’m kind of interested in.”

“Anyone I know? It’s a small town after all.”

“I think you may be familiar with him.”

“Him? That could be a dangerous thing here.”

“I like a little bit of danger.”

Eddie smiles, “what time do you get off?”

“About another hour.”

“Hmmm, I’ll come back and pick you up.”

Eddie tips his hat and leaves the bar, and Buck thinks the last hour of his shift drags on forever, but finally he’s cashed out and collected his tips and he goes outside to find Eddie sitting in his truck. Buck gets in, and they drive out past the town lights, past his ranch, almost right up to the border to Mexico, and park. 

Buck feels like he’s in a country song as the radio hums in the background and Eddie leans over the console to touch his fingertips to Buck’s chin and pull him towards himself to give him a soft, slow kiss. 

It’s the best kiss Buck has ever had, and he can’t help but smile the entire time. It’s the beginning of what Buck knows is going to be the rest of his life. 

[neko-naruto]

First night

A few weeks have passed since the first night in the bus, we've fixed up Hot Daniel, the bullet holes where a pain to deal with and the engine had one or two more problems than Dash had found, but we got Hot Daniel fixed up in little time and even had enough extra time to give him a fresh coat of paint and some hotrod flames.

"We need to get a few things cleared up before we get settled." Valerie said from the front of the bus, everyone sitting wherever they wanted.

"And what would that be?" I asked.

"First of all-"

"The guys will do the work while you ladies get settled and check out the house." Dash claimed cutting off Valerie.

"I would die before I let you work the soils without my help." I said overriding Dashes statement.

"Like you know any better." Dash countered with.

"Unlike some of us, I actually know how to treat plants and reap results that one could make money off of." I snapped at him.

"Guys! Calm the fuck down!" Valerie shouted at us, shutting everyone up.

"Look, because I have the best planning skills, I can figure this out." Tucker said boldly.

"You couldn't even plan breakfast." I countered with under my breath.

"Then you make a plan." Tucker said in return, didn't think I would get this far.

"Dash can search for any stray livestock, chickens, horses, goats, cows and ducks." I said, Dash nodding in agreement.

"Ok, I can do that." Dash said before cooling his proverbial jets.

"Tucker your checking to see if the farmhouse still has working eletricity and rudimentary heating, if not, find the problem then try and fix the problem." I instructed tucker pulling up something on his PDA.

"Alright, I can look through my diagrams for old houses electrical and heating systems." Tucker said before pulling out his stylus and tapping away.

"Paulina, your in charge of checking out the opposing farms, theirs bound to be at least one." I told Paulina.

"I'm sure my charm can get a few of tricks of the trade from any competition." Paulina said with a foxy smirk, she was really good at that.

"Val, your in charge of working on any machinery on sight that you can find to see if the gadgets still work, and if not trying to fix them." I instructed.

"Sounds like a plan." Valerie said her eyes still locked onto the dirt road she was coasting across, kicking up clouds of dust.

"And Danny, yeah I guess you can help me tend to the fields." I said looking across the bus at Danny, a packet of seeds in his hand, tobacco seeds and tomato seeds.

"Nice, do you still have your powers from undergrowth?" Danny asked.

"Yes, and incase your wondering I can bring a tree to full maturity in the span of an hour, so a field of tomatoes would only take me day to bring to maturity." I explained, a small smirk playing at my lips.

"Can you crossbreed plants?" Paulina asked, why did we agree on trying to crossbreed plants again? Who knows maybe this plant will cross and stay useable.

"Yes I can crossbreed plants, but whether or not Tomacco will work is up for debate." I said, I told them not to get their hopes up, but now I see their hopes are already sky high.

"If Tomacco works we'll hit the jackpot, I mean, vegetables and weed at once is only heard of in cartoons." Tucker said as he shut down his PDA, a layout most likely engrained in his memory.

"Yeah, that's the idea." I said before I was thrown from my seat as the bus came to a sudden stop.

"Looks like our rival is just across the road." Val growled out, looking at the corn stand on the side of the road, someone manning the wooden stand with determination, a farm and fields of corn behind the stand.

"Is that Wes?" Dash asked as he looked out on of his windows before Val backed into the fields and cranked open the door everyone spilling out of the bus and rushing over to the stand on the other side of the road, Danny managing to make his way across the road before me.

"Wes!" Danny called out as I caught up to him.

"Hey, Danny, you and your stupid gang also came along to try and counter the farm me and your sisters managed to manifest over the last few years?" Wes asked cockily as I pulled out a small amount of cash before slapping down the grease.

"One cob, let's see if your can even do your job right." I countered, being handed a cob which I took a chunk out of, flavors balanced and sweet like the corn should be.

"Shut the fuck up, we both know Ellie will crumble and give us her tricks of the trade in no time flat." Danny said cockily before turning around and walking back leaving Wes smirking, the rest of the gang having dispersed to do their tasks.

"Don't think we won't beat your ass in this farming game." I warned giving Wes a stare that could make Satan shit himself.

"If you say so, have fun." Wes said in a cocky manner as I walked back and grabbed three tools and a pack of seeds before digging up some ground and dropping in a seed, I spat in the hole before crouching down pressing palms flat against the ground the plant growing to full maturity in seconds, I grabbed one tomato and tossed the fruit at Wes, hitting his stand with precision.

Maybe farm life won't be boring.

[paunchsalazar]

24. if you could move to anywhere in the world right now, would you? where would you go?

25. if you could have any animal as a pet, what would you choose? does this differ from your 'favorite animal'?

24. oh boy… tbh I want to move so badly but there are about a million factors to consider! If work and money and all those things weren’t a problem… yes I would absolutely move and I think maybe Turin or any larger city in Italy (doesn’t have to be quite so big but definitely a city) or maybe Paris or Barcelona (my dream in 4th grade) just because I could struggle through the language enough to live vs. other places that would not be an option! just want a city where one could walk around…

When I was a kid I thought I’d live in New York (I still like it a lot, still want to… but it doesn’t make any sense career wise). San Francisco maybe! Hopefully that’s in the realm of reality!

25. maybe a goat? They are so cute! I love horses and cows but they are so big lol even in a dream hypothetical. I used to ride horses though and wanted one soooo bad as a kid. Favorite animal… probably a red panda or a various kinds of deer? Idk! Just so cute!!

[outro-tearist]

paws of paradise - chapter 2 {bangtan ot7 x reader}

hi everybody! sorry for the inactivity but idek how to do a schedule ever. i think that maybe once a week is what i'm shooting for, but i honestly have no plot and im making it up as i go!

as per usual, i'd appreciate comments, thoughts, suggests, anons, anything! have a great day!

~silver~

chap 1 chap 2 chap 3

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“Shit.” (Y/N) whispered. Not only were there two new dogs today, but Jimin also couldn’t make it to help with walking today.

Kim Yeontan and Jeon Gureum had joined the roster of new regulars, and while she appreciated the support of her business in the bustling city, she couldn’t help but stress over the fact that so many people were becoming dependent on her.

This was the busiest day she had seen ever since she had packed from her old home in a small countryside town. As the small town stereotype goes, everybody knew everybody in her hometown. She was mostly known for being a farmer’s daughter and having a preference for animals over humans.

After spending most of her teenage years hanging out in barns of cows, horses, goats, and other farm animals, she had realized her passion was helping and caring for them.

At the same time, (Y/N) was bored of her small-town life and wanted to experience the hustle that city life promised. She could have easily gotten a grooming job somewhere in the country but decided that it would be best for her to move to Seoul.

She had never once regretted her decision, but that does not mean it was easy for (Y/N) in any way. Buying a shop, getting certified to groom, remodeling her shop, finding an affordable apartment, and getting a small job before her shop opened were just a few struggles she had fought through.

“You little- c’mon Gureum! I have yummy treats!! Mmmmmmm come get some.” (Y/N) baby talked to the small white dog. He seemed to laugh in her face as it turned around and continued to jump around Yeontan and another larger dog that she forgot the name of.

Gureum seemed to instigate the most trouble out of all the dogs she had met. She would always find the “dynamic duo” (Jimin’s nickname for Gureum and Yeontan) prancing around the other dogs and creating chaos. Yeontan would usually stop when told but would be roped back in by Gureum to run around and bark wildly.

“Gureum! C’mere boy,” a new voice called from behind (Y/N). Apparently, somebody had come into the back of the shop and she didn’t even hear the bell.

She let out a small shriek as he rushed past her legs and made her lose her balance. She desperately tried to regain her balance but unfortunately fell backward. She closed her eyes to brace for the ass flattening she would receive but was only met with a firm chest and bulging arms wrapping around her quickly.

“Oh my gosh! Are you okay Noona?!” the young boyish-faced with the largest build she had seen called out to her.

(Y/N) looked up at the boy with bunny teeth and quickly pushed herself up and off his chest. “AH! Yes! I am all good now,” she chuckled awkwardly. “Um, how did you get back here?”

“I didn’t mean to scare you! I thought you’d heard the bell in the front but then I saw you struggling with him so I thought I would help a little.”

“Is Gureumie yours?”

The boy bashfully ducked his head as he leaned down to pet the calmest version of the white dog the girl had ever seen. “Ah, yeah. My hyungs say that he and I are kinda similar but I don't see it… Anyways, they also told me that you are the best groomer around, and from how he looks now, I think I’ll be here more often.”

“Wow… Thank you, and tell your hyungs thanks too! What’s your name so I can log him out?” (Y/N) was so excited to hear people giving her small shop good reviews. It meant that all her hard work actually meant something.

“I’m Jeon Jeongguk, and I’ll let Namjoon hyung and Seokjin hyung know. They’ll be happy you thought of them too.” he smiled brightly and picked his still wiggly dog up.

“Have a great day! Hope to see you soon.” (Y/N) smiled at Jeongguk as he walked out of the shop. She walked into the back only to see Yeontan jumping up on Jimin.

“Jimin! I thought you were busy today- and how’d you get in?” (Y/N) grinned at her coworker. She felt her cheeks warm and her heart beat a little faster now that he was here, but she brushed it off as soon as Jimin responded.

“The back door is always opened, like usual. And I still am but I just wanted to stop by… check-in and make sure you’re doing alright?” Jimin started somewhat nervously. (Y/N) giggled a little bit as she stood a little closer in order to pet the dog in Jimin’s arms.

“Well, Jimin, I am doing very well right now. In fact, I walked all the dogs AND finished the appointments scheduled so far. Maybe you need to step up your game on dog walking.” (Y/N) teased lightly.

Jimin scoffed, “Oh please, you wouldn’t have hired me if you didn’t need to. Admit it, you need me to be here.”

This statement made (Y/N) freeze up a little. He was her first friend that she had met in Seoul, and thanks to him, she was able to achieve everything she had wanted and more. The girl softened a little bit and looked up into Jimin’s eyes.

“You’re right. I really appreciate all that you’ve done for me. Thank you so, so much.” she expressed her gratitude gently.

Jimin seemed to fluster at this, not expecting a genuine response from his coworker as he stuttered and stumbled to find new words. Luckily for the blushing man, the tinkling bell sounded from the front of the store.

“Hello, welcome to Paradise Pet Groomers, what can I do for you two?” (Y/N) politely asked the men as she walked out of the backroom. “Ah, Yoongi-ssi, good to see you!”

“Likewise.” the stoic man responded. He had Holly on a leash as his dog smelled the second man who walked in with another incredibly handsome man. His face seemed to be perfectly chiseled and he seemed to be a few inches taller than Yoongi standing next to him.

“Hi, Taehyung-ssi. Jimin will be right out with Yeontannie. And Yoongi-ssi, I’ll grab Holly now if you’d tell me what sort of cut you’d like for him.” (Y/N) smoothly managed the two customers.

“Taehyungie!” Jimin shouted as he ran out from the back with Yeontan. Taehyung greeted him back just as excited, and (Y/N) couldn’t help the twists of jealousy that ran through her veins as they seemed so happy to see each other. Despite that, she forced a grin on her face to turn back to Yoongi, who had brought him back into the grooming area.

“Just do the same cut as last time, please. Holly looked good like that.” Yoongi’s deep voice grumbled as he bent down to say goodbye. He let out a few small high-pitched squeals as (Y/N) watched through the window as Jimin and Taehyung were hugging.

Fuck. That should not have made her feel as angry as it did. Yoongi seemed to notice the tension that entered the air as he cleared his throat.

“Oh- sorry. Holly’s cut should only take about an hour and a half, so we’ll see you soon!” (Y/N) tried to crush the bitterness in her voice, but it was useless. Yoongi had to have noticed it, but he didn’t say anything. All he said was, “See you soon, (Y/N).”

(Y/N) took in a strained deep breath, and picked up Holly just as Jimin’s blushing face entered through the back again.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stay longer, but-”

“It’s fine. See you later Jimin.” (Y/N) cut him off shortly. Jimin’s eyebrows raised as he began to wonder what had happened when he was talking to- he blushed a little bit more thinking of Taehyung.

“Did Yoongi say anything? Are you alright…?” Jimin asked tentatively.

“No! I-I’m fine. Sorry to worry you, but you should get going. Don’t wanna be late to wherever you’re going.” Jimin’s shocked face hurt (Y/N) to look at, so she looked down at Holly and brought him to the baths.

“Oh. Right. I guess I’ll get going then.” Jimin stared at her a bit sadly before he awkwardly walked out the backdoor. “Oh my god Holly what is wrong with me.” (Y/N) said to the small brown poodle. He simply panted happily as she scratched behind his ears as the warm water flowed down his back.