#lots of toenail talk recently

[pseudophan]

i had 2 entire toenails removed at the end of september last year, do we think that’s what brought dapg back. they still haven’t regrown btw

yes we do think that. also yeah get used to it they regrow so damn slowly, it's been eight years since the last time i had half of one removed and it's still not fully grown out

[luvsfootball]

failed date - aurelien tchouameni.

requested by - anon.

request - hi, can u write for aurelien tchouameni pls. no one has ever written anything for him. 🙁

“he what?”

you were back from another failed date, arriving back to your shared apartment with aurelien feeling rather gloomy.

but after two glasses of red wine, he was making the situation seem a lot funnier than it was.

“he tried to pay with a coupon that was one year out of date,” you snorted, pulling your knees up to your chest to carry on painting your toenails.

aurelien sighed as he took the nail varnish off you, grabbing your foot and opening the lid. “you could have called me. i would have picked you up.”

it was true that you didn’t want your date to drop you off home, but he insisted. he didn’t try anything in the car other than talking about how ‘sexy’ you looked. you were greatful you lived in apartment blocks otherwise he would know your actual address.

“it wasn’t the worst date i’ve been on. do you remember elio?”

aurelien laughed at the distant memory of the guy who had ditched you in the middle of nowhere because his girlfriend had called because she was in labour.

when the laughter died down and aurelien had finished painting your nails, he frowned when he noticed the look on your face.

“what is it, anjo?” aurelien grabbed your hand and rubbed circles on your skin, eyes wide as he tried to meet yours. “is there something about me?”

“no, no. you’re perfect. it’s them that have the problems, not you.”

he knew that if he was the one taking you on a date, you’d be treated like royalty.

the pair of you had been friends since children but you had moved to madrid for work as a nurse for the real madrid team.

when aurelien told you of his transfer, you were over the moon and he was the one that suggested the idea of moving in together.

you agreed. rent was a lot cheaper when there was two people paying and there would always be someone there to talk to.

but the thing with aurelien was that he didn’t want to be just a friend you came home to after a long day. he wanted to be more than that. someone you shared a bed with and shared a toothbrush holder with.

and you were the same.

the reason you were going on so many dates recently was because you were trying to fill the hole in your heart.

it only wanted aurelien, no body else.

“thanks. for always being there.”

aurelien softly smiled at you, holding his arms out for you. you settled down onto his chest, closing your eyes and letting yourself fall asleep.

+

aurelien knew he had to tell you one way or another. but he was so nervous.

all day he had been stuttering over his words, so much that you thought he had developed a speech problem overnight.

you both ate dinner together, and even though you were rather chatty, aurelien wasn’t being his usual goofy self.

“aurelien? what’s wrong? you’ve been acting weird all day,” you murmured, placing your hand on top of his.

he pulled away almost automatically and ran it through his hair, blinking rapidly. “i-i don’t know.”

“come on, you can tell me anything,” you frowned when he refused to make eye contact with you and you could also see his chest rising and falling at a fast pace.

“do you remember when we were kids? i told everyone that one day i was going to marry you.”

the fond memory came to mind and you giggled at the image of a young aurelien down on one knee in front of everyone in the playground.

“how can i forget that?”

aurelien felt his stomach tighten and the sudden urge to be sick came over him. it was no or never and he needed to calm down.

with a deep breath, he stuttered over his words, “i want that to be a reality. not just some memory in a playground, i want it to be the best memory of your life. but the real thing, not the fake thing from when we were kids.”

you looked at him like he had two heads. “you want us to get married?”

“no, no,” he repeated firmly, “not yet, anyway.” he didn’t break eye contact, breath shortening as he finally let out the thing that had been weighing him down for months.

“it’s you. it’s always been you. i am so very in love with you and i don’t think i can stop.”

you stared at him in disbelief. the thing you had been wanting to say for a while had come out of his mouth, which you never expected in a million years.

he grabbed your hips with his hands, sighing as he muttered, “i just want you. every single bit of you.”

“you’ve got me, aurelien. i love you too.”

aurelien smiled at you and suddenly everything felt so much better.

you were his now and he was your’s.

[hannahssimblr]

“Give me your artist's perspective, do you like this colour?” Jen wriggles her toes and fixes a small patch with her nail varnish brush.

“It’s black. It’s not a colour.”

“Black is a colour.”

“It’s the absence of colour, it’s a shade.”

“Ugh, annoying.”

“You asked for an artist’s perspective.”

“I’m sorry I bleedin’ did.” She rolls her eyes and lies back on her towel. “I just wanted you to say that you like it. It’s about time you learned about what women really want.”

“Well, alright then, I like it.”

She sniffs and pushes her sunglasses onto her face. They glint in the high sun. “I miss Michelle. She knows how to talk about girl things. You’re useless, you know that? She’d look at my toenails and she’d say, ‘wow, Jen, that’s a nice colour, it really suits you’ and I wouldn’t even have to ask her to do that.”

“Sorry for having a dick,” I say. “It sounds like it’s really hard for you to cope with.”

“Thanks for understanding.”

“Have you heard from her recently?”

“Michelle? Yeah. She we were chatting on MSN the other day. She’s having fun in Malaysia, and it’s mad hot and all of her dad’s family are nice so far. And she saw a dead dog in a bag in the river.”

“Nice, thanks for the update.”

“Why don’t you message her?”

“Because I’m not close to Michelle like you are.”

“I wish you were, she’s important to me.”

“Obviously yes, I know that. We just get on each other's nerves.” She thinks I’m annoying, I think she’s annoying, we’d just never really work as friends. Jen knows this, so I don’t know why she keeps talking about it.

She turns over to look at me, “Well I think you should give her a chance, because you have a lot in common actually, you’re both really good at drawing, and you’re both smart. Also you could really use some practice with being friends with girls, and I mean just friends, not friends that you eventually, you know, fuck.” She whispers that last word because it’s a scandalous thing to say. 

“I don’t fuck.” I hiss back. “I wish you’d stop saying that, people might believe you.”

She snickers, “But you do!”

“No! As far as you’re concerned I've never done it. And I don't really feel like talking about this, it makes me feel weird.”

“Well okay, but when Shell comes back, and when we go back to Dublin you should make an effort with her, and you should use her as practice.”

I groan. “What do you mean?”

“See if you can not seduce a girl who’s close with you.”

“Stop it, I don’t seduce either”

“The girls at school would disagree, you should hear how they talk about you in the changing rooms, it’s all ‘Jude did this, Jude said that, he touched my arm, oh he’s so fine, did you see his arse in those trousers?’ It’s actually disgusting.”

I squint at her, “My school uniform trousers?”

“I think so.”

“I can’t help it if I pull them off. I pull everything off, actually. And I also can’t help it if the girls I make friends with eventually fall in love with me, I’m just naturally very sexy, so I get if you’re nervous about Michelle, because you never know what she might see in me…”

Jen is laughing, “You’re ridiculous. It’s just that you have that slight hint of an American accent, and they go wild for you because they think you sound like someone from 90210.”

“Whatever, I make that work for me too.”

“Well you know Siobhán in Ms Daly’s class? She says that you-”

“Okay, okay, I don’t want to know what she says,” I snap, with irritation that surprises even me, “I’m tired of talking about this now.”

Jen frowns, “Well sorry. Moody.”

“I just don’t want to know all of the weird things girls are saying about me to each other. Would you like it if you heard of yourself being, like, talked about like you’re not even a person and reduced to just body parts? I don’t think you would.”

“Nobody talks about me like that, so yeah, actually, I wouldn’t mind it for once.”

“Well it feels bad. They all talk about me like I’m some conquest.”

“I’d rather be like that than like this.”

“Like what?”

She says nothing. 

“Like what, Jenny?”

She crosses her arms crossly, “Never mind. Just ask yourself, if I was straight, do you think we’d still be friends?” 

Then I frown into her face. I don’t like this question or its abruptness. “Of course we would be. Why would you say that?”

“I’m just wondering, like, in an alternate universe whether things would have gotten complicated between us and then we’d have had to stop being friends out of awkwardness.”

“I don’t think that at all. I think we’d be friends no matter what.”

She chews on her lip anxiously. “Yeah but that proves my point. You think that because I’m not pretty.”

“Come on, Jenny, you are pretty.”

“Uh! I’m not, and I’m also fat, so,”

“You’re not fat.”

She huffs, “Well, I am. It’s a fact. You don’t have to lie. I’ve heard it enough times at school by now to know that everyone thinks so.”

“I don’t know… this conversation is weird. I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“Well… I don’t know either. You just didn’t get my point.”

“Is there something about being friends with me that, like, makes you feel bad about yourself?” Now I am cold and horrible on the inside. If Jen believes, even in some small capacity, that our friendship exists only because I can’t or won’t date her, then I’m sick with myself. As if I would throw it all away for some lame chance at romance, when really, I’d be friends with Jen no matter what, and forever. No matter if she were straight, or thin or in some way differing in her appearance. I’m friends with her because she’s the best person I know and we are good for one another, not because I’ve merely settled for her. I wish I could communicate this effectively, but I know I can’t, because every time I try to say things like this to people it inevitably comes out wrong and I end up looking stupid.

“I don’t know. It’s alright.” With hands that clutch at her arms she sniffs and looks sharply away from me, down the long strip of the beach where the land whittles down to a spit and tapers into the sea, “I wonder if I text Joe now will he be able to get something from his brother for me tonight. I’m starting to get so bored of being sober.”

My stomach tightens like a fist, “What do you mean? What do you want him to get?”

“I dunno, like something fun for later. Whatever he has.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” 

“Uh!” She looks at me with mock incredulity, “Are you my da? I can do what I want, can’t I?”

“I suppose, but why? It’s just not predictable. You never know what kind of junk you’re going to get when you go to a guy like that.”

“I know but I like that about it,” she takes her phone out and starts texting, “It’s unpredictable. Russian Roulette, right?”

“Yeah… Fine. Whatever. Something like that.”

Beginning // Prev // Next

[woodstoneb-b]

Hello and welcome to Woodstone Manor - I have been here since the beginning, this house growing up in my shadow. A majestic mighty tree that has stood the test of

Nah this is weird...I'm Jay Arondekar and this is all just a simulation. Because video games are awesome and so is this ability my wife, Sam has. She can see ghosts!

She inherited this house from her Great Aunt and after falling down the stairs and kind of dying for a bit - she got better! - she can see actually see and hear ghosts.

There's 8 of them haunting here (well...not exactly, but more on that later)

This is them! Well, almost all of them... From left to right - Trevor aka "No Pants" (fortunately this game doesn't let Sims go pantsless, but he absolutely insisted on me putting him in tiny underpants after this...weirdo.) He's a finance bro from 2000 - he worked at Lehman Brothers (yeah those guys), despite this he's not as shitty as you'd think.

Then there's Sasappis, he goes by Sass (a well deserved nickname my wife tells me), he's a Lanape who's tribe used to live on the land here and he died back in the 1500s. Despite that he really loves TV.

Next to him is Flower - and you can totally guess where she's from right? The 1960s. She died on the property after trying to hug a bear, drugs were involved. She's cool though, if a bit spacey.

The guy next to her is an honest to God Viking from like the year 1000. Did you know there were Vikings in New York?! I did not so this was pretty epic to find out. According to my wife the good news about Thorfinn aka Thor - he's learnt to speak English, the bad news - he talks a lot about murdering and pillaging, also cod, salmon...any fish really.

And your eyes do not deceive you, next to Thor is a soldier from the Revolutionary War - Captain Isaac Higgintoot, who you can learn all about by reading my wife's recently released book on him The Forgotten Founding Father: The Isaac Higgintoot Story - available from all good bookstores! He died from dysentery, but we don't talk about that

The guy in front who looks like boy scout, is not a boy scout, he's Pete, Pine Cone Troop Leader and awesome travel agent (kids ask your parents about that), he's from the 80s, loves D&D, basketball.

And in the back wearing the eyecatching red, is Alberta who you may have heard about from the monthly Murder at the Manor?! podcast hosted by my wife and Todd Pearlman complete and a total loon who has one of Alberta's toenails and wants to clone her she was a raising star in the Jazz Age and her loss is utter tragedy for the music world.

And this is Henrietta "Hetty" Woodstone aka the owner of Woodstone Manor - well, that would actually be my wife, since Hetty is a ghost, but yeah. She wanted a screengrab of just her because as the owner of Woodstone she deserves it. She and her asshole (we're not striking that out? No? OK) husband/cousin, Elias - Mill Owners and Robber Barons built Woodstone in the 1850s. Apparently, there was a house on it when they started, but they made it the place it is today.

Here's the ground floor layout, there's a Ballroom, a Library, a Music Room and a Games Room. So yeah, the Woodstone's were rolling in it!

The first floor, where the bedrooms are, there's actually 9 of them - well 8 if you don't include the Owner's Suite, or 6 if you take out the ghosts' bedrooms (why do ghosts need their own bedrooms? Because getting walked through hurts. They bunk up, Thor and Trevor share the Private Living Room so that means only 3 bedrooms are out of commission. Although the one marked "Spruce" isn't actually available yet because of a terrible mould issue so there's actually 5 guest rooms at the B&B in real life. But for the purposes of the game here, each Ghost gets their own room, again! They're pretty jealous of their simselves to be honest.

We have a basement with an actual secret Vault in it! Sadly, the visions I had a piles of gold ala Scrooge McDuck did not come to be. But you can drink wine down there now, it's accessed by a secret room and passageway. Where exactly is the secret door? You'll have to visit us to find out!

There's also a whole group of ghosts in the hot water heater room that died of Cholera, my wife says be glad you can't see them.

And finally the attic, you don't wanna go up there, it's full of old stuff including metal things that are probably a tetanus hazard. Also there's a ghost of a teenage girl up there, she got murdered on her way to prom in the late 80s and she's pretty pissed about it. Which is totally understandable, although she's also a huge mean girl and that sucks.

So now you have a bit of background! Tune in next time to see how the Ghosts settle in and their excitement at actually being able to leave the Manor grounds! (Did you know Ghosts are bound to the places they haunt? Turns out they are...which is why my wife and I have to put up with them)

[lifblogs]

I have been thinking a lot about what I went through in the fall of 2022 lately. Probably because it was traumatizing, and what do you know, it's fall.

For those who don't know, I developed a painful, deadly illness called Stevens Johnson Syndrome in October 2022, and was eventually hospitalized (thank fuck) for it in November 2022. I beg you to not look this illness up, to not see the images. You will thank me for not doing so. It's horrific to look at, and even more horrific to be in a body that looks the way it did. Basically I felt like I had the flu at first, or maybe COVID. My mémère had just died, and I got testing done because I didn't want to go to the wake and funeral and risk getting everyone sick. I think I went through two weeks of that. It seemed to mostly go away in November. But at my dad's place I started to get itchy. And that's when it all goes downhill.

Stevens Johnson Syndrome is a severe, drug induced allergic reaction that causes a necrotic skin rash. Basically, you get a red-purple rash, feel like you're burning, your skin dies, and it falls off. This leaves a lot of room for infection to get in as well, and I had several (and the pitted scars to prove it).

I suffered for a long time, seeing doctor after doctor after doctor, and no one was helping me. I started wanting to kill myself from how much pain I was in. My skin literally felt on fire. There was heat coming off of it. I felt so hot a lot of the time. Movement hurt. Clothes hurt. I'd scream while taking the cold showers I was recommended to take (though I actually shouldn't really have been showering at all).

And my skin was coming off. I had a million open wounds on my body, a ton of burnt skin. It was a literal nightmare. I was given pain meds and antipsychotics at the hospital so I wouldn't try to kill myself from the pain. Sometimes at home the only thing keeping me alive was The Lord of the Rings.

What's interesting about this whole experience (aside from the fact that if the doctors had known what I had I most likely would have been treated in the burn unit) is that there is not a lot of research on the life-long effects.

But it's been two years, and I have noticed these effects more and more, and ended up looking into it. There are studies, but not enough for doctors to tell survivors what they're in for. It's tough. My hair is constantly coarse and brittle now, it falls out (supposedly this could be from scarring), the first layer of my skin tends to die and peel off if I skip a few days of skincare (this includes my whole body, not just my face). Recently I skipped skincare for a few days, and my feet hurt so badly from how dry they were that I didn't even want to walk. My nails are weak, and break and bend so easily. I get frequent tears in my skin around my fingernails, and recently I've had a whole entire half of a toenail peel off. My nose and mouth are almost constantly dry, sometimes to the point of pain. TMI, but my nose doesn't run anymore because everything just dries up and gets stuck in there. I have a hard time talking from how dry my mouth can get. And of course, there's a ton of scarring (more TMI, but a lot of the skin on my breasts is purple, though that's not too weird since the chest is one of the most effected areas). I've been noticing my scars more too, and thinking about them more. I notice them when I see my legs a lot in particular.

I was too sick to think about all this last year, but it's just, I don't know... odd, doesn't feel like the right word, but it's kind of surreal that this changed my whole life. So much of my daily routine revolves around caring for my skin, and apparently that's what a lot of burn survivors have to do as well. It's just crazy to think of the severity of what I went through, I guess. If I got more detailed about it you'd all need the body horror trigger warning. I just wish doctors would tell survivors what they're in for for the rest of their lives.

[xenon-demon]

hiya!!! just wanted to say i LOVED your kas!steve post so much it makes me squeal with delight no joke

any chance you can drop some details about steve's new appearance/abilities 👀 because i would love to hear more!!! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

Hi thank you SO much!!! <3 I have so many THOUGHTS about Kas!Steve constantly and am always keen to talk about it! (if I defeat my crippling executive dysfunction issues long enough to post more I can tag you in it if you'd like 👀👀)

Kas!Steve's whole deal is that Vecna revived him to act as his "ultimate weapon", particularly against the bunch of meddling kids who already interfered with his plans once. He's not worried about the government or any of the scientists ruining his plans, he's worried about Eleven and her allies. He knows damn well the Party & co are going to have a much harder time defeating one of their own, or at least something that looks like one of their own, than an assortment of inhuman beasts. Plus, having a second in command who is intelligent is an asset to Vecna (and Steve, while not academically gifted, is really good at tactics/strategical thinking).

This got wayyyyy longer than I thought it would so I'm chucking this under a readmore, I have "can't shut the fuck up" disease and it's terminal.

BASICALLY I wanted Kas!Steve to be at least a little different from the classic fandom depictions of Kas!Eddie, just for flavour - so to start with Steve absolutely Does Not have wings. Regarding his appearance, the main stuff is:

prehensile, multiple tails like the demobats do - Steve has 5 tails, with one (the central one) being slightly longer and thicker than the rest while the rest sort of loosely weave together around it at rest. They can be controlled independently, but it's quite difficult to do so and Steve is absolutely not at that point yet. It's like - if he went "I want to grab that object with my tails" they would all wrap around it to grab it securely like a human hand would, but it would take a looooooot of practice and experience with this new form to go "I want to hold a different object in each tail at the same time" (and even then it'd be tricky as fuck/take a lot of concentration).

FANGS. So all of Steve's teeth are now sharper and pointed, like the democreatures tend to have, but in addition to that boy's got MAD fangs. His top canines actually jut out from under his top lip and visibly dig into his bottom one, Steve has to relearn how to hold his face when his mouth is shut to hide them. His bottom canines are also larger and pointier than the rest of his teeth, but less egregiously than his top ones. Plus he has claws too, where his finger/toenails have essentially expanded and hardened so instead of just being a "cap" on top of the digit, his fingers and toes blend from skin to keratin and end in a hardened, sharp point. It is actually possibly to file/trim them without hurting him though, with appropriate tools (since they're harder than human nails).

Steve's eyes have vertical pupils now (like cats), since he's got what essentially amounts to DnD darkvision. They also glow gold when Steve's craving blood. Or craving... other things. (I'm talking about being horny his eyes glow gold when he's horny. In Steve's defense, bloodlust and regular lust are kinda intertwined when you're a vampire.)

His skin is also just that bit tougher than it used to be, Steve no longer gets scrapes or cuts as easily.

He does still eat food in addition to blood, he's just carnivorous now - lots of meat (can be cooked but tbh raw is better) and animals products like eggs and dairy. He doesn't digest plant products properly anymore and will throw up if he eats too much of it. As for human blood... he doesn't NEED it to survive, but he craves it, and it gives him a boost to his abilities when he's drank some recently (in that what I've described is him at Full Power™, and if it's been a while since he's had blood it's progressively harder and harder to do those same things). He also just Looks Sick if it's been a whie since he's drank blood. Also when he's out of the Upside Down (especially if, say, he was no longer connected to the hivemind) if he doesn't drink human blood on a regular basis he WILL go feral and revert to a much more animalistic state of mind.

Now the fun stuff, aka his powers:

Superhuman strength, pretty much no one would be able to beat him in a one-on-one, hand-to-hand fight. Bring a weapon, ideally a gun. He also has better stamina than a regular human would and tires much less easily.

Heightened senses - he can see in the dark better than humans ever could and his sense of smell is heightened (particularly smelling blood, human blood in particular). His hearing is actually not that much better than a normal human's, but very high pitched or "artificial" sounding noises grate on him in a way they never used to (e.g. Curse The Fucking Fluorescent Lightbulb Buzz).

He's connected to the hivemind like all UD creatures are, but unfortunately that means he's connected to Vecna. Vecna has a very strong connection to him, given that it was through Vecna's powers that he was revived, and he can plunge Steve into a hallucination whenever he pleases just like with the curse victims. This is how he communicates Steve over long distances.

Steve also has vampiric thrall/mind control abilities, but he can only really pull it off when he's freshly loaded up on blood. It also works best for simple instructions - he could exert simple, one-word-command type control over almost anyone, but complicated multi-step instructions or more abstract things (e.g. being encouraged to forget about something or instructed to not answer certain questions going forwards, indefinitely) would only really work on someone Steve has an extended, close relationship with. It works through eye contact - the gold eye glow also happens when Steve's using these abilities. But shhhhhh I'm sure Eddie's going to be totally fine, everything is chill he'll be fiiiiine ;)

God this is WAY LONGER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE I'M SO SORRY. I hope you enjoy the lore drop!! <3 Let me know if there's anything else you want to know about because I could talk about this AU all day, I'm obsessed with it

[f-cat]

Hey, Cat!

I've been following you for a while now on twitter, Tumblr, and now on your recent deviant art, and have been more of a lurker. I really like your art and have just never commented. Maybe I might comment on one of those sometime. I like all your pieces a lot and saw you had ama, so I wanted to ask a few things.

You always give the women such nice clothing in all of your works, how do you normally decide what they wear?

2. A aspect that I feel like people don't talk about enough with your pieces is the toenails, specially the nail color. You always give the women such pretty tops, but it's understandable why it's overlooked because you make the soles look so good! So how do you normally decide what color their nails are? And what's your favorite nail color?

3. Another aspect that I feel like you're great is the look of all the women, specifically their faces. The way of how you make them look in all the pictures really enhance what's already there, and you've shown a lot of improvement with that. How long does it normally take to do a whole art piece?

4. What happened to your Gwonda pieces? You had a few that you made last year that aren't on your twitter or deviant art anymore. To remind you about them, you had two when she was in her costume, in one of them she was swinging, and the other she was playing a game with her legs crossed. Then you had two when she was in casual wear. One of them she had just one leg up, and the other she had two legs crossed. Is it possible for you to repost them on your twitter, and deviant art.?I hope I did a good job at jogging your memory of those.

Thanks, keep up the great work!

Hello!

Glad you're a fan! C: Don't worry about wanting to reveal yourself if you're shy. I'm happy some of my work makes you happy.

You always give the women such nice clothing in all of your works, how do you normally decide what they wear?

I often just think about the type of personality they have, and do a lot of research into their characteristics. I read character biographies and watch media or cutscenes they're in to get a handle on the way they behave, then ask myself "what kind of clothes would this person wear?" I go from there.

A[n] aspect that I feel like people don't talk about enough with your pieces is the toenails, specially the nail color. You always give the women such pretty tops, but it's understandable why it's overlooked because you make the soles look so good! So how do you normally decide what color their nails are? And what's your favorite nail color?

Thank you! I use the same concept when I design their tops too; if they're more athletic I give them some veins and paint on the blood vessels. If not, they're smoother. It's the same thing with nail polish color; I just think about what looks good and what fits their personality. I don't really have a favorite nail polish color. I usually either rock white, red, or bare irl.

Another aspect that I feel like you're great is the look of all the women, specifically their faces. The way of how you make them look in all the pictures really enhance what's already there, and you've shown a lot of improvement with that. How long does it normally take to do a whole art piece?

I studied some lighting techniques and found one I was comfortable with! When I first started doing this, it would take weeks to create a model because I was so unfamiliar. These days, it takes me a few days if I really concentrate on it. However, I'm not perfect and am limited sometimes by the things I can do.

What happened to your Gwonda pieces? You had a few that you made last year that aren't on your twitter or deviant art anymore. To remind you about them, you had two when she was in her costume, in one of them she was swinging, and the other she was playing a game with her legs crossed. Then you had two when she was in casual wear. One of them she had just one leg up, and the other she had two legs crossed. Is it possible for you to repost them on your twitter, and deviant art? I hope I did a good job at jogging your memory of those.

If you want to discuss the reason with me privately as to why I removed a certain piece of art, please feel free to reach out to me outside of anon. You can note me or submit another AMA.

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

I’ve barely begun on the next chapter😭😭 and thought I would send you a sneak peek. 🤣 a lot will happen both plot wise, but it will be more focused on the vologarian monarchy for this bit. But I just had to send this in solely because I wrote Peter….and I still cannot stand him😭 this chapter will be out quite late I am afraid, but I know you are also equally as busy so I thank you for your patience.

I just love the fact that Alix is so done with Peter in this….

Alix is halfway up to her fathers office when she stops in her tracks, eyes taking in Peter as he sits on the wooden chairs outside their fathers office. Alix first instinct upon seeing her brother is to turn back as swiftly as she can, hoping he hadn’t caught sight of her and leave as fast as she can. she has no intention of speaking to Peter, in fact ever since that argument in the car they hadn’t spoken. Before Alix could make her swift exit Peter’s eyes caught hers, his blue eyes were wide and mouth agape as he took in his sister, he immediately stood, smiling wide at her. Alix inwardly cursed, he had the gall to smile at her. Him. After he had caused her so much grief and pain. After all Alix was sure this meeting was to talk about his recent escapades, and how to clean them up. It made her sick, both physically and emotionally.

It was then that Alix let her eyes really take in Peter. His complexion had changed since she last saw him, his usual paleness and gaunt expression gone; replaced by an almost sun kissed complexion, as if he had been in some remote island of the Pacific. But it wasn’t his complexion that made Alix’s ears burn red, it was his attire. Ever since Infancy Alix and Peter had prided themselves on being grandchildren of the king, and then upon their fathers accession children of the king. That meant when you walked into the kings office, you were smart, your clothes were proper and efficient.

What Peter dawned was the opposite, hair unwashed in an Adidas tracksuit and Birks. With his fucking uncut toenails.

Alix couldn’t help herself as she muttered You’ve got to be kidding.” Peter catches the end of the statement, his wide smile gone, blue eyes paling as he takes in his sister’s judgmental gawks. He looks pained, almost embarrassed. In retaliation he points to her attire.

It is then that Alix realizes she had not changed from her outing with the horses this morning. She had landed after leaving the borbons on a flight that lasted just three short hours. Had made it back for supper, and to her astonishment her father was still on his last engagement. So Alix had sat and ate with the servants, her mother supposedly out. After recalling the servants with her tales, and inquiring about their family, Alix had set of on a ride around the grounds. She supposed she should have changed from her tailcoat riding suit.

Peter balks with a scoff—“Oh, like you look any better, fucking clown suit.”

Before Alix can retaliate with a better comeback the office door opens and their father stands in the doorway. His stature large and looming over them with a gaze akin to fire. Menacingly eyeing Peter with a glare that makes him take a minuscule step back. “What is the meaning of this disrespectful attitudes you harbor for one another?” He barks out, his voice loud enough it makes even Alix shrink back.

Peter remains the stiff boy he always had been, and Alix doesn’t know how it took her so long to view him like so. She had always, always held him high regard, her companion for life, but now as she watches him, watches how he glares at her with such animosity she finds she is the one being blamed.

“Papa you made mention of HER being here in your call yesterday” Peter speaks, and Alix feels her heart break as he says it. So much so that Alix can’t help but let the words ring out. She really should refrain herself.

“Papa, you didn’t mention that Peter would be here, surly he should be out wasting our money and disappointing our people with his spineless childish behavior, perhaps we should give him a bid for fear he will make a bigger mess than he already has”

Alix thinks she can see her father stifle a small smile. But it’s to fast to register.

I will say I have a lot of research for this chapter and I hope it surprises you in a good way….although one can never know what lurks in the shadows🤭🤭….as always, I wish you a wonderful week!!❤️-🇪🇸

That little brat…

Anyway I think we all know what is coming up and this piece is just amazing, Peter sucks as always, someone needs to restrain me before I throw him off the edge of the universe, but yeah this is amazing!

Keep up the great work and sorry this took so long to answer! 🤍

[savofid]

Guess I'll do the thing where I mention that this is gonna talk about nightmares and physical abuse, along with some other stuff that might bother some folks. I'm gonna keep adding it, though: if you need content warnings, you're probably in the wrong place. If you're still here, how did you even get here in the first place? This is where I scream into the void.

Call it a delusion of grandeur, I don't really care, but I do think that the way that I dream isn't normal. You're telling me that you're regularly not yourself, have no memory of the waking world but do have intricate knowledge of the world you're inhabiting that's accurately balanced against your lot in life. You have full tactile feedback, up to and including temperature, humidity, wind, fine detail like grains of sand or the slow accumulation of sweat in your socks (along with the bits of stray fiber getting caught on a poorly trimmed toenail), and, most importantly, the complete and total ability to feel pain, even those you'll likely never experience in your lifetime, most of them being ones you wouldn't exactly experience for very long or ever again. This is the normal dream state for me.

I say this because this also applies to nightmares. I used to be able to yank myself out of them, back before I had an anxiety disorder. Now? Well, now I'm stuck in them, and my subconscious knows it. I've been saying for a very long time that I genuinely believe that my subconscious hates me and wants to make me suffer as much as it can. The few regular dreams I have are merely to try to make me let my guard down to maximize the impact of the next terror it's cooked up.

All this to say that I had a bad dream and my entire body hurts. Like, I can still feel certain injuries I sustained in it, namely the hard kick to my back, just to the right of my spine and right in my ribs, and this having been done by my most recent ex. I feel like I gotta mention again that this was a dream, not something she's done in real life.

All zero of you that have been here before and have read the mess that I've been might know that she hasn't exactly been kind to me or my psyche throughout all of 2023. Hell, just brief interactions with her can cause me to have a panic attack. The series of nightmares my subconscious has cooked up about it all definitely hasn't helped. A common theme to all of them has been her total desire to possess me in some way. In most of them, she's tried to kidnap me or has outright done so, having been this unstoppable monster in spite of my best efforts. In one, she was merely toying with me because she should just walk through solid materials like a ghost, just laughing at my futile attempts to protect myself.

In the one last night, she kept trying to drag me off to have me alone, but I would resist, promoting her to "get mean" because she thought I was being mean by not wanting to be carried off to an unknown location for undisclosed reasons. Mean, to her, would seem to mean just beating the shit out of me every chance she got and being violently jealous of other women interacting with me. For example, one felt bad for me having been hurt so much, so she was rubbing my shoulders to try and help me feel better. My ex sees this, sneaks into the room, has one of her goons drag this poor girl away while covering her mouth, and my ex pretends to be that girl for a moment until she's completely gone. Then, she stands up and starts kicking the fuck out of my back and ribs, trying to inflict as much damage as she can before someone stops her. To try to keep safe, I ended up sleeping in the cabinet under a sink, locking the doors on the cabinet, it all being in a room with a dozen or so other guys, the doors to that room being locked, and zero access to the outside without knocking down a wall. I also regularly employed disguises to try to escape her notice.

-- Another reminder, this was just a nightmare, not something that really happened. I mean, it feels like it did, but that's definitely not grounds to call the cops or whatever. --

If I never saw her again, be it in life or in dreams, it would be far too soon. I wish she'd just move away so I never have to see her again. Never have to worry about her walking into where I work and acting like nothing ever happened and then spending the next hour or two trying to get a handle on my heart rate before I start having palpitations or go into a screaming fit. Am I gonna do anything stupid out of fear? No, because that will spawn further interaction, meaning I have to deal with her more and the emotions get more tense and then it's just a lot of screaming. I want to see her less, not more.

[relationshipsafecute]

"What Does Love Mean?" See How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think…

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." (Now THIS is love!)

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image!)

Karen - age 7

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one…

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

Get Free Good Advice for a good and long relationship help

[relationshipsure09]

"What Does Love Mean?" See How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think…

How to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

How to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

How to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." (Now THIS is love!)

How to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image!)

Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one…

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

How to connect with your man even when he seems most distant

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

[selfhelp4all]

"What Does Love Mean?" See How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think…

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." (Now THIS is love!)

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image!)

Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one…

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

[sportsminorityreport]

Douchebaggery and the fall of the PAC (part 1)

There have been a lot of articles that have come out recently on the fall of the PAC revealing all kinds of details. Fans and media personalities have been seizing on some points and ignoring others that I think are far more obnoxious.

I am going to voice my opinions of what I see. These are my views on what went down in the PAC based on the variety of post mortems on the PAC that have come out recently from people like John Wilner. Maybe I don't have a full picture. Maybe you disagree with my conclusions, but I hope you consider them nonetheless.

Lets talk about this in the framework of a timeline of PAC disintegration.

Following the departure of longtime PAC target The University of Texas to the SEC, the PAC conference starts to do due diligence on whether any of the 8 remaining Big 12 schools might merit PAC inclusion. It gathers information on the members of the remaining "Big 8" and presents it's findings to the leaders of the conference in a meeting to evaluate potential targets. USC's president Carol L. Folt reportedly aggressively questions why the conference is even discussing these schools. The other PAC schools' leaders defer to her strong negative stance and expansion of the PAC dies right then. Now less than a year later, Folt would bail out on the PAC in the middle of the night taking UCLA and the PAC's most important media market with her on the way out. It strongly suggests Folt knew the answer to her question, that they Pac media footprint of a mere 67M residents was something like 55% the size of the Big Ten Media footprint and had long been stifling the media value of the PAC's historic National brands. This was the reason the PAC chased UT for 35 years....to add a single school and get media relevance in all of Texas's markets including the big 4 DMAs(DFW, Houston, SA, and Austin). Adding Texas would expand the conference media footprint by almost 50%!!!! This leaves Folt looking like a feckless partner.

The PAC Commissioner, George Kliavkoff, is not taking enough blame, part 1. "Really, Tobi? Everyone blames that guy...." Yes, really. When USC and UCLA left, TCU and Texas Tech should have been immediately contacted if you wanted the Dallas Market. I am guessing that at that point though that the Big 12 members had FINALLY gotten around to signing the GOR extension. If that was the case and TCU and Tech were gone, SDSU should have been added with Gonzaga as the next most sensible pairing. That was the right play. It would have protected a PAC recruiting presence in Southern California and would have dramatically improved the conference's basketball status--- two things that were big for at risk program Arizona. Instead it was SDSU who most PAC schools wanted and everyone could tolerate and SMU who was viewed as a toenail in the best new media market available within a reasonable travel distance. I don't think anyone in the PAC or the media partners loved SMU with it's tiny fanbase. The Pac leadership misidentified it's biggest problem at that moment (shitty basketball leading to an Arizona departure.) There is a saying, "Don't let a good crisis go to waste." The loss of USC and UCLA was a get out of jail free card for the PAC to add ANYONE that made sense bypassing the constant reservations over academics. But the commissioner deferred.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 2. It was revealed that the PAC had their own paid consultants value the PAC at roughly $35-37M per school. ESPN offered $30-32M. In that scenario you ask for $38-40M hoping to get $35. Then a professor at a university valued the remaining PAC schools at $50M each (without USC and UCLA) and took it up with his president. That President made it an issue and the commissioner buckled. When faced with having to to tell a president "No." the commissioner chose instead to keep his powder dry. The Pac's counter offer of $50M lead to ESPN walking out the door. Fans want to blame that professor and the mystery president. That is letting the Commissioner off for lacking balls in a moment that called for it. You hired your people to evaluate the value of the PAC, then you didn't back their conclusion because it was politically inconvenient.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 3. It was no secret that Colorado was talking to the Big 12. The PAC Commissioner had to be the only person in North America who didn't know. That was inexcusable. Simply thinking about why Colorado would be talking with the Big 12 is all that was required to do a lot to sour that departure. As an outsider looking in, it appears Deion took the job at Colorado and began immediately campaigning to get the school into the Big 12 where he could recruit Texas and even Florida much better. Once it became clear that was the driving force, SMU and Rice should have been added to erase most of the gain of joining the Big 12. Floating a rumor that if Colorado left, their spot would be offered to Colorado State might have been the cherry on the top to kill CU's momentum to go.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 4. When the PAC lost USC and UCLA and southern California, they fell from 67M in their footprint (a small number in the power conference tier), to about 43M people. That was TINY in power conference terms. This matters in a HUGE way. This very much diminished the appeal of the PAC to linear networks. The CW for example is a nationwide network, with affiliates in every market. How valuable is PAC basketball to the CW affiliate in Tampa when the PAC' closest team is in Colorado and the next closest is in Arizona? Having a large media footprint means that there is a reason for viewers in a distant market to have a reason to tune in to see a Arizona Cal game. Expansion would have made the valuable PAC brands MORE valuable to linear providers, allowing the per team payouts to stay in the same neighborhood even adding schools with smaller fanbases. It appears that the PAC commissioner locked in to getting a deal from Apple. Apple wants large fanbases and the PAC not expanding removed linear competitors who would have driven up the market price. In very real terms, the commissioner blew the media negotiations by initially driving off ESPN and then keeping the PAC media offerings as unattractive as they could possibly be for linear providers. Without competition from the Linear Networks to push up the price, Apple was able to keep the guaranteed minimum payments low.

[dankqueef]

Everyone on the planet? Was immortal and also had a power. I dont remember most of the dream but I was the grim reaper so the 0nly one who could actually kill people. I was going to this school and killing people who were criminals. They had taken it over and were using it as their base of operations. I got in a fight with the head guy in the gym and he brought everyone to watch. He was not well liked by them but he did scare them. He also brought his #2 in to fight me. I dont remember the specifics of the fight at the start. Eventually he grabbed me and just like, held me down. His number 2 was bug and looked like that girl from nejimaki kagyu-chan, the most recent arc, the girl who was fighting marble and was depressing. Anyways he releases poison gas as his power and it affects everyone in the gym even. #2 has a fur power idk what it did. People in the crowd are hurt by the poison but immortal so they just sit there. Some start talking about how this power is so good that he could take over a nearby jail, another settlement nearby that has lots of strong people in it. He yells that if anyone else says another word or moves a muscle he'll fucking kill everyone in here. The room goes deathly silent but I jump out of the crowd and ask if I can still talk and move. So I teleported or something. He gets a crooked look on his face and we run at eat other and I punt his head like a football.

This also happens in real life and I wake myself up by kicking my wall. Kind of hard too.

Hanging out with isaac and uncle Jim. Uncle jim has his toenails done lime green. There was a party? Cynthia got put in charge of some lizards.

[nanorelationship]

"What Does Love Mean?" See How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think…

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." (Now THIS is love!)

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image!)

Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one…

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

[forever-relationship-123456]

What Does Love Mean?" See How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?"

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think…

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca - age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

Billy - age 4

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss."

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate."

Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine - age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day."

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." (Now THIS is love!)

Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image!)

Karen - age 7

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross."

Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

And the final one…

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

"Nothing, I just helped him cry."

Get free advice for a good and long relationship.