#owning a house is super fun

[youssefguedira]

V, JoeNicky & Nile

V. An abandoned or empty place.

When Joe pulls the sheet off the couch it kicks up enough dust that it makes Nile sneeze. The couch underneath is old, wooden frame rotting, fabric stained and full of holes where moths have eaten away at it. 

“Sorry,” Joe says to Nile when she finally manages to get the sneezing under control. “Didn’t realise it was that bad.” He puts his hands on his hips and looks down at the couch. Nile looks it over.

“There’s no saving that,” she says, wiping at her eyes. She can heal from falling over ten stories, but she can’t get away from allergies.

Joe frowns. “I liked that couch.”

The house is older than anywhere else they’ve brought her, and has been abandoned for long enough that it’s falling apart. But through some trick of posing as their own sons, or something, Joe and Nicky still own it, even if there’s a giant hole in the roof and all the windows are broken. Why they’d decided to come back here, Nile doesn’t know, but it’s a nice enough area, and a good distraction from, well. Everything. Growing back a leg, she’s discovered, is not fun. 

From one of the other rooms – she thinks it’s the kitchen, she’s not actually sure where Nicky had wandered to – there’s the sound of something breaking and crashing to the ground, and a muffled curse. 

Joe makes a questioning noise in the vague direction of the kitchen. A few moments later, Nicky appears in the doorway, covered in dust. “I am okay,” he says. “But I think we will need to go out to eat tonight.”

“Nothing?” 

Nicky shakes his head. “Unless you want to start a fire and go hunt some rabbits.”

Joe grins. “Just like old times, right?”

Nile shakes her head firmly, which makes Nicky smile. She loves them, but there’s no way they’re doing that. 

“We can probably clear out enough space in here,” Joe says, gesturing to the floor. “Get the sleeping bags out of the car. Probably have to start a fire anyway, but…”

Nile looks around again while Joe says something to Nicky in Arabic that makes him laugh. The house is falling apart, sure, but it’s structurally stable, and the bones are all there. It could be something. They’ve got time to make it something. 

Nicky is the one who goes for pizza in the end – he doesn’t trust Nile and Joe to order it if left to their own devices – while they try to clear out a space in the living room. Eventually, though, after Nile has another sneezing fit, Joe suggests they just take the sleeping bags outside instead, which works out a lot better. He sets about starting a fire with practiced ease while Nile sets out the sleeping bags around it. They’re far enough away from civilisation that she can’t hear cars passing by, which is kind of surreal, and the stars are brighter than she’s ever seen them. 

When Nicky gets back, two boxes balanced on one arm and a bottle of wine in the other, he looks over their makeshift camp and laughs. “Just like old times, then?” he asks.

Joe grins. “Except we have pizza.”

“And actual sleeping bags,” Nile says.

“Ah, these modern inventions could never quite match the comfort of a pile of furs,” Joe says wistfully. Nile gives him a look. She’s ninety percent sure that one’s bullshit, but she can never quite tell with him. 

Nicky sets down the pizza boxes, and jogs back to the car to grab the pack of plastic wine glasses they’d bought before they got here. 

“We should’ve bought marshmallows,” Nile says. “Could have made s’mores.”

“Well, we’ll have to go to the hardware store tomorrow anyway,” Joe points out. “And I think it’ll be a little while before we can actually sleep in there.”

“Tomorrow, then?”

“Tomorrow,” Nicky agrees.

[sparxyv]

Milena's Makeover - Pt. 1 🪄💫

(i'm pretty sure i'm settling on this, but only time will tell if i stick to it 😪)

prepare for a small self indulgent yap-fest 🤞

i've been thinking of giving milena a makeover for so long - but ONLY her looks. milena's personality and backstory (while i haven't talked much about it here) are staying the same! 💜

i loved milena's other design, i just never had much fun drawing her unfortunately 🥺 so this is long overdue!

my two biggest struggles doing this have been her hairstyle and her facial structure. until i remembered.. she's my character.. and i can make her however i want her to be 🫣

i still feel like i'll be altering a few things overtime, and although i'm missing a few of her old traits, i love this sm. plus her hair colors and eye colors tie into her lore! 🥹

(there is more i haven't shown yet.. but those things are going to be revealed soon 👍)

here we gather to mourn the loss of:

milena's freckles

the scar/mark (or is it really all that gone???)

milena's 3A hair

[flufflecat]

More effigy progress

[wilberave]

the terrifying moment of realization when talking to a self proclaimed Leftist when you can immediately tell “oh. this person has never done an hour of community service in their life.” like. i know it’s been said before but your politics truly do not matter if you’re not interacting with your community in any way. you can vote in every single election and it will not have a fraction of the impact of 17 year old tyler who got sentenced to 20 hours of picking up litter and weeding the community garden. you can never once vote out of protest and read piles of theory and not come close to making the change that the group of 80 year old catholic ladies at St. Mary’s on the corner do with their weekly community meals and school supply drives. we live in the rotting corpse of an evil empire. ideas mean fucking nothing. the only thing that matters at all is physically extending a hand to try to help the people around you.

[unexpectedbrickattack]

Absolutely adore your little comic with Pepperman. He's one of my favorite characters and I feel like people always characterize him as some intentionally hateful person. He just lacks a filter and comes across as annoying! He's so special to me as someone who struggles from the same unfiltered habit.

Fun fact: Mcpig mentioned a while back that the only reason Pepperman and Peppino aren't friends post-game is because Pepperman struggles to enter the pizzeria due to his massive size. Poor guy :')

This is 🥺💖 I think it is a very fitting personality trait. Its that thing about weaknesses in a character being seen as a strength and vice versa (when ur making ur own characters and getting stuck on fleshing them out). Like he is clearly shown as someone who is self absorbed; obsessed with his own appearance, and can easily be dispatched when seeing even a glimpse of his own visage.

But like on the flipside, that can be seen as a positive by deciding its Not him being obsessed with himself, but rather, him being obsessed w beautiful and wondrous things. Things that get his heart racing and make his artistic drive flare. Shamelessly in love with his own beauty is ALSO him being shamelessly in love with anything that is beautiful. No filter! He just says what he says! And like I do think he would be a bit of an ass and a bully bc I think of him and the noise as spoiledt brats who are just used to getting their way. But i like the idea of Pepperman knowing when hes met his match. Since he cant fight and pay his way to get Peppino to do what he wants, he will try more unorthodox methods. Like. Beg. He is just lucky Peppino is completely disarmed when being praised, bc otherwise baring his wants and still being rejected would probably obliterate his ego 😭

[fictionadventurer]

All the tour groups in Springfield should be very proud of me for how well I refrained from sharing all my fascinating Lincoln facts.

[scoliosisgoblin]

Peter and Jay doodles feat. T.K. and Lucy (headcanons for what I think they'd look like as humans.. gonna change their designs though)

[vultures-and-scavengers]

trying to come up with a menu for an orlesian multi-course fancy dinner and yeesh.

'bouillabaisse'. french isnt a real language.

[wren-kitchens]

sometimes you just gotta go insane over unpacking okay

[xxxemilyg1996]

I desperately want to start playing trumpet again I literally can't stop thinking about it

[swagging-back-to]

i hate dog owners actually

[piningpercussionist]

What's it even like at Ramona's place. Also is her cat cute and fluffy?

Well, it's not the most spacious place, for starters. Julie has us all beat on that I think, with Neil and Stephen's place coming second. Then maybe my place? I'm not really sure... DEFINITELY not Scott's.

But it's alright. Ramona knows what to do with the space she has, I think. And she just tucks whatever doesn't need out into her little bag that she's got, so there's never really any clutter, unless Scott's provided it. She's got, like, multiple stories to it? Like, one and a basement, or something- in addition to the ground floor, I mean. We've discussed playing down in her basement, sometimes, for practice? She seemed pretty receptive.

It's nice being over there. I dunno. She hasn't done a whole lot with it, but it's nicer hanging out there than it is here, usually. Wish she was less busy so I could come over more... I mean, I could visit Scott when he's there I guess, but it's not really the same. Besides, I wouldn't want Ramona to come back from work and have to chase me off to get some rest or something?

*Kim sort of snickers a little.* Or she'd come back to me trying to hide Scott's body. She doesn't deserve to deal with that.

Anway, more realistically, she's probably exhausted after running around all day, being the only Amazon delivery person in our area and all. Even if she was fine with me lingering, I'm not sure I want front row seats for the two of them being lovey-dovey or whatever. Gross.

And Gideon... Gideon is probably one of the cutest cats I've ever seen. I didn't really like cats too much before now, but I think I've been converted or something. He's just the sweetest thing, sometimes, and Ramona's managed to get him nearly completely desensitized to being picked up, held, moved around- he just genuinely doesn't care, so long as you aren't hurting him.

He's a short haired cat, I think, but he's super soft- Ramona tells me it's because we're always petting him. Something about the oils in our hands making his fur softer? I think I get the general idea there. His fur is like... deceptively dense though? You can sink your fingers in a little and muss it up if you want.

Heh. I don't recommend trying to mess with his stomach at all, though. Gideon's generally pretty forgiving, and doesn't really bite or scratch people from what I've seen at least, but one time Scott tried to give him belly rubs while he was all splayed out on the couch... the attack afterward was pretty tame so far as the initial strike went, but he got Scott good, and there was like... blood, everywhere. You'd think he nicked an artery or something, but no, it was just Scott doing what Scott does.

Is there some sort of like... thin-skinned or heavy bleeder debuff he's got or something? Or was it just him being a moron and splattering it everywhere? Anyway, Ramona had it handled pretty quickly, and tiredly, so that's probably something really typical for them.

[stars-inthe-sky]

8, 11, 13 and 37 for the asks! ❤️

8. What cleaning product do you swear by?

I'll use Clorox/Lysol wipes for pretty much anything that's not someone's body or meant to be eaten off of.

11. What's something you saved up for and then regretted buying?

Our king-size bed frame looks great—and was the result of a lot of searching for the exact look—but is not of the quality we'd expected given the price (which was admittedly an on-sale find at Pottery Barn Teen, of all places, but still). It kinda wiggles and squeaks a little even just climbing onto it, and last year one of the peg legs straight-up broke off seemingly spontaneously.

13. Which filter are you most likely to go "eh, it's probably fine" when you find out you need to change it?

The little charcoal filter in the coffee machine, which I honestly didn't even know needed changing until my mother-in-law brought it to my attention a few years ago.

37. Do you still listen to the same music you listened to in high school?

Not exclusively but definitely. There was an incident recently where something brought up Good Charlotte and led to Boyfriend and I belting out every word to "Waldorf Worldwide" while trying to bathe our toddler, who will surely wear the same look on her face as a teenager when I assume this will happen again, because evidently those lyrics are never leaving me at this point.

[mosquitinho]

bro i loooveeee not living at my parents anymore i love my new life in my small apartment with my beautiful gf so much. did u guys know that living on ur own rules very hard.

[lucalicatteart]

Poll adventure (paventure? lol) Day 14: read the small story tidbit below the poll for more details, OR just vote based on initial impression

(✦ see past poll results + further information HERE (link) ✦)

Yesterday's poll decided that The Adventurer should relax by spending his afternoon shopping ..

~

He trots down the mossy cobblestone walkway, gazing around in awe as he approaches the central hub of the small city. Tiny shops and stalls and carts are woven through the few clusters of taller buildings, with a modest crowd bustling back and forth between them. Despite much of the land being cleared for structures and pathways, it's still lush with greenery wherever it can be, every blank stone wall or street corner dotted with trailing vines and flowering fruit trees.

After spending a good 25 minutes trying to orient himself at the city map directory, he finally finds his way onto one of the primary shopping streets, eager to spend the afternoon lazily strolling about, trying to ignore his physical aches and just take in all the sights as he hunts for interesting items....

...A few hours (and multiple snack breaks) later, the streets begin to glow with a hazy warmth as lanterns are lit, marking the nearing sunset. Possibly because of the fight yesterday, he's felt shakier, more easily startled than usual, and suddenly realizes an urgent need to be safely inside his room at the inn before nightfall. He wanted to stay out longer, see the lights and the crowds, fascinating scenes of city nightlife he's never been exposed to before.. but, his nerves are impossible to ignore.

Begrudgingly preparing to slink off towards the inn in a sweaty anxious panic, he stops in the doorway, resolving to at LEAST buy himself ONE nice item before he leaves. He doesn't have much money, sure, but it'd be a shame to simply look around all day and not get anything. All travelers need to collect their souvenirs, right? But.. What should he get?

-

-

Additional Information (feel free to skip this part, it's just extra context for people who are interested lol)

just for record (in case it influences what people think he should buy), this is the adventurer's current inventory contents:

small journal + pencil to document his travels (and a few colored pencils for sketching plants or doodling)

a basic travel guide booklet

a simple map of the area

a small glass lantern case you can put candles in

fire starting materials

basic matches

first aid kid (a few bandages, simple antibacterial balm, some dried herbs that can be used for minor issues like stomach aches or nausea)

one metal cup, one metal bowl/plate thing, one metal fork/spoon, a cooking knife, and one metal pot for cooking over the fire

a basic toiletry bag (toothbrush, herbal mixture toothpaste type thing, bar of soap, one towel, a rag, a few disposable paper napkins, moisturizing oil, hair brush, a tiny cracked mirror)

three bottles of various spice mixes for flavoring the plain/bland food he usually forages on the road (+ plain salt)

a glass jar of berries

a container of plain dried oats

a container of dried beans

half a loaf of stale bread

one carrot he found

a bag of dried fruit

about 15 coins (maybe equivalent to $45 USD in our world money lol)

a basic fishing kit (simple lures, hooks, string)

two containers of canned fish just as a back up in case he ever can't find fresher food for the cat

a cheesy fairytale romance novel about people going on a grand heroic journey, to help give him inspiration to continue on his own travels and be the ultimate Super Cool Adventurer Hero

an old folded up letter from his family

a fabric pouch of cool shiny rocks + other trinkets he's collected

one change of underwear, one change of socks, + winter gloves

foldable saw

some twine/string

a basic sewing kit (2 needles, one spool of thread, a thimble)

lawyer's business card (from boat party)

lawyer's fancy expensive giant scarf (also from party)

1 lunchbox of vegetable dumplings (from Innkeeper)

2 canteens of water

a small dagger for cutting rope, vines, multipurpose anything

a little tin of mint & rose flavored candies for when his mouth gets dry

a box of cubed dried chicken as cat treats

a box of fancy tea

one large rope

a roll of fabrics (one thick blanket for padding when sleeping on the ground, some basic tent fabric to make shelter from, a few spare fabric scraps, 2 cloth napkin/towel things, two cloth sacks for extra carrying capacity if needed)

1 pouch of dried meat

5 candles

Innkeeper's hand-drawn map to her brother's hideout

and of course, the Mysterious Egg in a little wooden box

the adventurer's current main quest: follow his map to reach the abandoned castle ruins and see the rare animal specialist about the mysterious egg he has

[sunsetzer]

Hello I am not dead I've just been sucked irrevocably into Stardew Valley by my friend who bought it for my birthday (and also Christmas, because my birthday is three days after Christmas, which is usually the way presents go for me and I don't mind). I've already put like 42 hours into my little farm in the forest and making friends with the residents and I'm having the most delightful time. Also my friend's boyfriend is purchasing a copy for my girlfriend so we can play together. What really sold her was when I told her we could get gay married in co-op. 10/10