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sixpossumsinatrenchcoat · 11 months

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The things we leave behind: PERSISTENCE

In the last act of my postgame Headspace AU, Sunny and Omori finally, *actually* talk. You can start from Chapter 1 (of 6) here: ao3.org/works/45213322/chapters/113743957

Then nothing happens for two weeks.

...Well. That’s technically not true. Now that Sunny lives in the real world, things are always happening. Kel’s intramural basketball team wins a grudge match against the YMCA that Kel’s decided is their nemesis. Aubrey bums a cigarette off some girl in an alley and then drops off the grid for eight days before resurfacing to report, with clear regret, that “Helen still has a lot of growing up to do.”

Sunny squints at her. “You’re like... 20.”

“Maybe physically,” Aubrey sniffs. “But I’m wise beyond my years.”

Basil spirals into a full-fledged breakdown over an end-of-term deadline before very nervously accepting a few of Kel’s Adderall. Then he writes the whole paper in five hours and spends the rest of the night deep-cleaning Sunny’s kitchen and alphabetizing the spice rack and organizing all the treasures in the junk drawer by material and size. Which would be fine, until he wakes Sunny up at 4 in the morning to ask if the arthropod fossil should be filed under ‘stones’ or ‘organic materials.’

“I don’t care,” hisses Sunny, who’s 80% asleep and 100% incensed. “I hate you. If you ever take Kel’s meds again, I’ll kill you.”

Hero convinces himself that he bombed an exam and spends four days stress-baking before Sunny has to physically stop him, because the fridge is so full of banana bread and shortcake that there’s no room for actual groceries. (Hero gets an A. Obviously. This happens every month.)

Kel gets his ear pierced. Aubrey goes along to keep him company and walks out with two new tattoos. Basil starts experimenting with aquaponics. Sunny starts experimenting with gouache.

Things keep happening, but only when he’s awake. No more nighttime visitors. No more weird, reality-breaking dreams. Sunny thinks about Omori sometimes, but he doesn’t waste time worrying. If Omori needs him, he knows how to find him.

It might have been nice to find out how everything turned out. To wrap the whole ordeal up neatly, with a bow. But by now, Sunny knows that closure only exists in fiction. In real life, stories don’t end. They just… stop.

Then he starts seeing things.

And not just the usual things, e.g. street art, stray cats, sunsets. A specific thing. Something… behind him.

He’s in the bathroom, brushing his teeth, when his eye snags on a blur of motion in the mirror. Something long and lifeless, swinging from the rafters. When he whips around to look, it’s gone.

He’s lying awake late into the night, waiting for sleep to take him. He’s already taken melatonin and Advil PM and two CBD gummies and a Valerian tincture under his tongue, which is… pretty much everything a guy can do, sleep-wise. From there, it’s just about keeping your eyes shut and not looking at your phone. But Sunny hates doing nothing. He spent four years doing nothing but. And when he finally sighs and sits up, he can’t not see the figure looming over the foot of his bed. Lank black hair on dead white skin.

He’s getting up to get a glass of water. Or he’s skulking between high-rises on a storm-gray day, trying not to look at his reflection in the glass. He dips his brush into the palette and pretends he can’t see the eye glaring up through a pool of Eggshell White.

But he can’t run away forever. He’s not sure he’d even want to.

It feels increasingly clear that Mari (or Omori, or his subconscious mind or whatever) is trying to tell him something. He just doesn’t know what it is.

It would help if he could talk about it. Hero is unnaturally good at sussing out why Sunny’s feeling what he’s feeling, usually before Sunny’s even noticed that he’s feeling it. Not as good at Mari, but still very good. And Basil knows more than anyone about what’s going on in Sunny’s head.

But they would worry. Their nightmares might get a little more colorful; a little more specific. And it’s not like Sunny really minds. He’s always happy to see Mari.

####

Legacy is funny. It never looks the way you would’ve guessed, but it’s almost always right.

Take Mari. Mari’s legacy is:

Mischief (and with it, the growing conviction that she knows more than she’s letting on),

Unnervingly keen, loving attention,

Fucking with people for sport, and

Picnics.

Picnics are the big one. Like Mari, they sit at the junction between worlds. It’s the ideal middle ground between indoor kids and outdoor kids; between fragile, bookish readers and rough-and-tumble wrasslers. Even after seven years without her, the friends she left behind are still happiest stretched out on a grass-stained gingham blanket, with the wind in their hair and the sun on their skin.

Everyone picnics differently. Kel and Aubrey romp around in the grass, throwing a frisbee or racing to the nearest bodega to decide who’ll foot the bill for a family-pack of ice cream sandwiches. Basil likes to find a safe little corner to write in his notebook or read—anything that makes him look busy enough to speak up when he wants to, without feeling like he has to. Hero studies and studies and occasionally glances up to make sure Kel didn’t leave the cooler open again. And Sunny? Sunny sits back and watches the show. He yawns and rolls over and naps in the heat of the sun.

Speaking of which. Sunny stretches like a cat and flops backward, till his head comes to rest in the crook of Mari’s knee.

“Hehe,” she giggles, grinning down at him. “Silly little kitty. We should get you a bell. You and Mewo could match!”

Sunny wrinkles his nose. “It might wake me up.”

“A fate worse than death,” she says gravely. “Don’t worry, little brother. If anyone tries to bell you, I’ll bell them.”

Well. Good.

He’s about to close his eyes when a shadow falls over her. Long, dark. Cold. A gash of white in a pillar of black, its edges billowing in the breeze.

Sunny’s breath catches. Mari. But— But she was just—

…Oh. He must be dreaming. When he’s awake, Mari doesn’t go around hosting picnics. When Sunny’s awake, his sister is dead.

“Um,” he says. “Hi.”

His sister’s smiling face flickers. The phantom looming above her stretches longer still. “...Sun…ny… Can we… ta…lk…?”

Sunny sits up obediently. He always wants to talk to Mari.

“…ehe…” the shadow giggles. “Listen… Nee…d… you… Omori…”

Sunny stiffens. Does that mean that Omori really is in trouble? But—Omori knows where to find him. If he needed help, why wouldn’t he just ask?”

One huge, sideways eye creases with amusement. “…Like h…ow… you did…?”

Oh. Right. Sunny knows how to ask for help now. And even now, it’s rarely his first instinct. But when he was Omori’s age…

He shakes himself off. “What do I do?”

“...Eas…ier… if…” The phantom stretches out one long gray tendril of shadow. “…show… you…”

Her spectral flesh feels gelatinous against his skin, rubbery-cold as dragonfruit. “Show me.”

###

Sunny opens his eyes in a white void. Cold as the vacuum of space and just as endless. But this time, White Space isn’t vacant. He can hear murmured voices, the rustle of cloth and the hush of breath.

When he sits up, he finds three figures and seven eyes staring back at him. The weird thing is, not one of them belongs to Omori.

Ex-Chairman Hero is here, looking vaguely puzzled and majorly perturbed. Basil hovers by his elbow, wringing his hands worriedly. But his shadow is distinctly not wringing its hands. Its arms are crossed, its searing eyes narrowed with impatience. Behind them, the specter of Mari—or is it Something, now? Sunny makes a mental note to ask her what she likes to be called—still looms.

“Um,” Sunny says. It’s not exactly the welcome he expected. “Hi?”

Headspace Basil gives him an anxious little smile. “Thanks very much for coming. I think we could use all the help we can get.”

When he closes his mouth, his voice keeps on going without it. “Yeah, right,” it mutters.

Basil looks mortified. “S-Stop that!!”

“I just don’t see why he’d open up to some random guy if he won’t even see his best friend,” Basil’s voice says sullenly. The words seem to issue out from his shadow, without any intermediary vocal cords.

“Aw, c’mon, Basil,” Hero laughs. “We talked about this! Sunny isn’t just some guy. He’s Omori’s—um. He’s…”

Sunny listens with interest. He’d always wondered what Omori’s friends thought of him. (If they’d thought of him at all. Until recently, Sunny had never actually set foot in Headspace. And the only one who ever came to White Space was Omori. Sunny had sort of had the impression that no one else could come here.)

Hero clears his throat. “A-hem. Um. Sunny is— He’s Omori’s…” He frowns a little and leans back, looking up into Something’s sideways eye. “What did you say he was?”

“...I thought y…ou were su…pposed to be an… honor student…”

“It’s not like they put this on our exams!!”

The specter snickers. “…Don’t… think too hard… about it…”

Hero grins ruefully. “Yeah, that’s… not really something I’m good at.”

“…ehe…” the phantom giggles. It’s not the same as Mari’s laugh. Mari’s laugh was a cheeky little snicker, like a cat playing with its food—unless you caught her off guard, in which case it barreled out of her like a foghorn. This is barely an echo of that. But the mischief is the same. “...If you… insist… Just… think of Sun…ny as my… little brother…”

Hero frowns. “But Omori’s your brother.”

“…yes…”

“But Sunny’s not Omori’s brother?”

“…definitely not…”

Basil’s shadow snickers. “Trust your girlfriend on this one. You’re not ready for the big picture.”

“G-Girlfriend???” Hero squawks, his voice breaking halfway. “We’re not— I mean!! It’s not like we…” He trails off. On the ground in front of him, Sunny is raising his hand. “Uh. Yes? Sunny?”

“I don’t understand.” Of course Sunny is happy to see them all. Together, especially. But— “Where are Kel and Aubrey?”

The specter of Mari flickers like a moth trapped inside a projector.

Hero winces, too. “We’re, uh. Still working on that.”

“...Still… a little sc…ared…” Mari whispers. “...Not their fault… Doing their best…”

Sunny’s forehead furrows. It doesn’t make sense. Aubrey is famously fearless. And Kel never slows down for long enough to get properly scared. Basil, on the other hand…

Mari’s edges flutter with another whistling laugh. “...Stranger and… I… go wa-a-a-ay back…”

“The nerd’s only scared of stupid stuff, anyway,” Basil’s shadow agrees. “Being wrong, and getting in trouble and things. He’s fine when it’s actually scary.”

“A-hem!” Basil huffs, planting one foot squarely on his shadow’s two-dimensional face. “I-I think we can all agree that— The point is, we’re all just worried about Omori!!”

“Worried he’ll disappear again,” his shadow hisses. “That he’ll leave us all behind.”

“Which would be fine!!” Basil rushes to clarify. “I-If that was what he really… Or, I mean… If that was r-really what was best for him, then—”

“But it’s not,” his shadow says flatly. “What? It’s true. You don’t have to pretend like it isn't. He isn’t moving on, he’s just being stupid. Again. Running away like a scared little kid.”

“He is a scared little kid,” Sunny points out.

Basil’s shadow rolls its eyes. “Yeah, well. Join the club.”

…Fair.

But that still doesn’t explain what Sunny’s meant to do about it. If they just need someone to talk to Omori, there’s got to be someone more qualified. Like. Literally anyone else. There’s a reason that Sunny’s friends are so talkative. If you put two wordless, socially stunted weirdos in the same room, nothing ever happens.

“...N…ot about… what you say…” Mari’s ghost whispers. “...No one else can… get inside… Only him…”

Ah. Okay. He’s starting to see the larger picture. Sunny might be worse at talking than anyone else in this room—and that includes the sentient nightmare who can barely fit two words between a sea of ellipses. But he’s also the only one here who arguably is Omori. (A part of him. The rest of him? Whatever.)

“Okay,” he sighs. “I’ll try. But. I’m open to suggestions.”

###

Omori is holed up in what used to be Sweetheart’s Castle.

Not that Sunny has any idea what that means. Omori said something about “getting rid of it,” but… what? Even by Headspace rules, it’s a little hard to swallow. Weren’t there people inside? Sprout moles are one thing—their sentience is very much up for debate—but did Omori remember to flush Rococo out of the basement before wiping it out of existence?

…There’s only one way to find out.

Sunny turns to face the others. “Any ideas?”

Hero practically trips over himself in his haste. “I-I made some soup!!! It’s, um. It’s… the same kind Mari used to make.”

“...Tell him… I love him…” the phantom whispers.

Basil squeezes his eyes shut. “Tell him I miss him so much!!!! I— There’s no pressure, it’s okay if he still needs—but we just!! I don’t know what to do without him!!!”

“Tell him we’re pissed,” his shadow hisses. “He can’t keep pulling this shit. There’s a limit to how many times we’ll—”

“Shut UP!!!” Basil screeches. “You know that’s not true!! T-Tell him we’re— W-We’re not going anywhere!!!”

“...but… don’t fe…el any… pressure…” Mari’s ghost whispers. “…might not even… get inside…”

Sunny snickers. Cool. Got it. Very helpful.

He throws back the doors—

—and steps into his living room.

(No, Sunny reminds himself. Not his. Just a room, now. Just a room where he used to live.)

Omori’s hideout isn’t a palace or a prison. It’s just a normal room. Beige carpet. Beige couch. Beige walls papered over with photos, so so so many photos. School pictures and Christmases and family portraits from a shop that’s long since shuttered, all stiff stances and smiles with too many teeth. But afterwards they went to All Star Burger and Sunny got a milkshake for making it through the whole session without shutting down or crying. Mari got one, too, just for being Mari. She deserved a million milkshakes. Eighty more years of milkshakes, at least.

The stain on the carpet. The way the lamp always flickered, no matter how many times you tightened the bulb. Mari said it must be haunted. But when Sunny ran into her room crying, she didn’t yell or send him away. She just told him, gently, that ghosts are really only people. Just lost, lonely people. And when they act out, it’s not because they want to scare you. They’re just afraid of being forgotten. They just want one last chance to be seen.

Mari, Mari, Mari. Everywhere he looks, there’s so so so much Mari. Gap-toothed and beaming, holding out the stag beetle she caught all by herself. Standing stick-straight in front of the concert piano, prim and well-groomed and stiff with fear. Dancing. Laughing. Carrying her baby brother on her back even when her knees buckled. For years after Sunny should have been too old for it, Mari never minded carrying him home.

“What are you doing here?” a voice asks. His own voice, ten years out of date.

Sunny jumps. He’d almost forgotten why he came. “What are you doing here?” he counters, for lack of anything better.

Omori looks down at himself, then back up. “…Sitting?”

“Right. But. Why here.”

Omori rolls his eyes. “White Space isn’t ours anymore. I guess nowhere is. The others kept bugging me. I just want to be alone.”

Sunny frowns. “You hate being alone.”

“You hate being alone," Omori says dully. "I don’t know what I hate.”

…Oh.

“And anyway, I’m not alone.”

Sunny’s forehead furrows. He follows Omori’s gaze to the corner of the room, where there’s a heap of old laundry scrunched against the wall.

—No. Not laundry. Mari. Not as she was, but as she is. Dead gray flesh mottled with rot. Crumpled limbs stacked like kindling. Empty.

“I made this place,” Omori announces. “Like you made everywhere else. You made a million miles of light and life and I made one boring room. I couldn't even figure out the TV. I tried, but it’s only static.” He looks up at Sunny, stone-faced. “Did you put anything good in me at all?”

What is he supposed to say to that? “Your friends seem worried…”

“Your friends. I don’t have any friends. Just hand-me-downs.”

Maybe. “They’re still worried.”

Omori shrugs.

Sunny shifts his weight uneasily. Omori isn’t giving him very much to work with. “You’re—um. You’re… not having a good time.”

“No.”

Then why are you here? “Then…”

“Why did you leave?” Omori asks abruptly. The words short and sharp. “Everything was fine before you left. Kel was never busy, and Aubrey never picked on us. And Hero was happy. And Basil was always okay. And—” He digs his nails into the arm of the couch, forces the name through his teeth. “Mari was. Alive. Mari was alive and she was perfect. Everything was perfect.”

Yes. That’s true. Sunny remembers.

Omori’s face darkens. “I know you," he spits. "You can fool them, but you can’t fool me. I don’t care how many stupid piercings you get. Out there you’re pathetic. Just some loser shut-in freak who’s too afraid to be alone. You think because you can talk now, it means you’re doing fine? You’re not fine. You’re still a freak. And you’re still a murderer.”

Sunny nods. Why would he argue? It’s the truth.

“So—why?” Omori grits out. “Why go back there? Why would you even want to?”

Oh. Hm. It’s an interesting question.

Sunny takes his time, thinking it over. There’s no use trying to answer right away. A half-baked answer won’t do Omori any good, and it might upset him even more. You can’t just throw a slurry of wet flour in the oven. You have to give it time to rise.

…Why did Sunny go back? It wasn’t just that he was dying. He’d been dying for ages, for years and years and years. He knew he was dying and it didn’t scare him. He used to think about it sometimes. It sounded… peaceful. So it’s not as though he was running away from the dark. He must have been moving toward something.

A lot of it was Mari. Obviously. Always. Was it ever even a question? Mari was the catalyst for everything. She’s the one who taught him how to be a person, and then a decent person. Before her death and after. She crawled out of the grave to pound on his door and remind him to be brave.

But it wasn’t only Mari. It was just—everything.

Sunny opened the door and everything was different. Everyone was different. He’d stepped into the last act of a story that no one had bothered to tell him. His friends looked like strangers. Everything that should have been familiar felt alien and strange. There was so much that he didn’t understand. So why did he decide to stay?

Part of it was just concern. Love and fear and the guilt that blooms from the marriage of the two.

When he first laid eyes on Basil, Sunny didn’t even recognize him. Basil had always been brittle, but now he was broken. Bloodshot. All the meat chewed from his bones. He shuddered and twitched and his hands flinched around in violent little jerks, like a fledgling flung from the nest before it’s finished growing its pinions. Too weak to fly, but too afraid to die.

Basil moved like breaking glass. Like breaking bone. He looked at Sunny with a million words trapped under his tongue. Civilizations rose and fell behind his eyes. Comedy, tragedy, catharsis. What had made him like this? Could it really have been Sunny?

(No. Yes. Sort of. But Sunny didn’t know that yet. He wouldn’t find out till there was only one day left.)

But it’s not as though Sunny faced the truth for anything as noble as concern. Sunny is many things, but he isn’t noble. He’s pragmatic. Realistic. (Selfish.) He protects his friends because he loves them. He loves them because it makes him feel good. He knows that he’s nobody’s hero.

So it wasn’t only worry. He was curious, too. About Aubrey, especially.

Aubrey. Seeing her was a shock to his system, a lightning-strike straight to the brainstem. He’d remembered her fussy, unflinching. Brash, but not insensitive. Forceful, but never cruel. The girl he met in the park… It couldn’t be Aubrey. How could it be Aubrey? She was wild with hate. Her eyes burned coldest when glaring at him.

But Sunny had trusted Aubrey. She was his compass, his focus. The one he could trust to speak from the heart. Aubrey was true to the bone. What could have made her like this?

(Sunny, Sunny, Sunny. Everything she lost and kept losing, it was all because of—)

—But he’s getting carried away. And anyway, that can’t have been the reason. Sunny didn’t have to go outside to hate himself, or blame himself. He was doing a perfectly adequate job of that all on his own. So then, why?

Ohhh, he realizes. It’s because— “It was fun.”

Sunny confronted the truth—the searing torment of an unbearable reality—because he was having fun. Fun! While he was awake! When’s the last time that he could say that?

When Kel knocked on his door, Sunny was, truth be told, probably not taking very good care of himself. Not being altogether kind. He used to think that he liked himself well enough, when Mari was alive. And then she died, and Sunny realized it was only ever Mari. Mari had loved him, and Mari knew everything, so it stood to reason that he must have deserved it. He’d felt entitled to all kinds of kindness, when he was Mari’s little brother. But when she was gone—and after what he’d done—

And then he opened the door and Kel beamed at him like a living, breathing sun. Kel took him by the hand and drew him out into the light and then acted like Sunny was the one who’d done something amazing. He looked wildly different, a hundred feet taller and stronger and more beautiful, and somehow he still felt exactly the same. And hanging out felt exactly the same.

But everything else was so new! The town thronged with faces that Sunny’d never seen before, or that he’d known and then forgot. He walked up to a million strangers and made Kel do all the talking, just like he used to when they were small. And even though Sunny had spent the past four years rotting inside, somehow Kel had grown more confident than ever. He was just as utterly, instantly at ease as Sunny remembered.

You could make a sort of game of it. Pushing Kel’s buttons, pushing your luck. Pressing at the boundaries of his comfort zone to see where they would break. Of course Kel could find rapport with the anxious artist drawing landscapes in the park, or the boy on the bench with the dreamy green eyes. But what about those fashionable newlyweds lost in the throes of choice paralysis? Or the bearded old weirdo muttering to himself in the hardware aisle?

Sunny walked into the homes of total strangers just to see what Kel would say. He wasn’t doing it to hurt him. It was like Mari hiding spiders in Hero’s desk. It’s just so exciting, finding out what someone’s going to do. Never knowing what’s going to happen next.

“So that’s it?” Omori demands. “That’s why you left. Uncertainty? Surprise? You left because you wanted to lose control?”

Hm. Sunny wouldn’t have put it like that, but… yeah. Maybe, yeah. It sounds sort of right.

“But that isn’t fair!” Omori hisses, flaring hot. “You made me to protect you from change, and then you went and changed into someone who didn’t even want that!”

Sunny frowns. “Do you want to change?”

“No!!”

Hm. Maybe that was the wrong question. “Do you… want to want to change?”

“No!! Or—” Omori hesitates. “I—don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if you could be here if I didn’t.”

…Hm.

“The others,” Omori says shortly. “They’re—different. From how you made them. They’re not just our friends anymore. They’re, like. People.”

(Ideally friends are people, but that probably won’t be very helpful right now.)

“It’s like…” Omori trails off. “Like they’re not bound by what happened. Or who they used to be. I don’t even know if Mari is our sister anymore, or if she’s just—” He slams one fist against the arm of the couch, burying his knife to the hilt in the faded upholstery. “I don’t know how to say it.”

Sunny knows how that is. “Just say whatever. Sometimes some of it is right.”

Omori lapses into silence, but Sunny knows how that is, too. He sits on the ground and waits.

A few minutes drift by before Omori opens his mouth. “…That story you told.”

Sunny blinks.

“About pissing yourself.”

Ah. Naturally.

Omori huffs a breath. “I don’t remember that.”

Well… of course not. When Sunny was in first grade, Omori didn’t exist.

“I’m supposed to be you,” Omori mutters. “Or, something that used to be you. A piece of you. Whatever. But I don’t even have any of your memories. I don’t remember growing up, or coming here or anything. I’ve been trying and trying, but the first thing I remember is just empty white. And a black hanging bulb. And hearing someone crying.”

Sunny frowns. “Do you want my memories?”

“No! I don’t know! I just want—anything! To know anything! What I’m supposed to be, or—who I’m supposed to…” He trails off. “I just want to know what I’m for.”

“I’m not sure people are for anything.”

“Maybe where you’re from,” Omori scoffs. “Not here. Anyway, I’m not a person.”

There’s a lot that Sunny doesn’t know, but that definitely doesn’t sound right. “You’re—”

“Don’t argue,” Omori spits. “I know what people are. They feel things, and grow, and—grow up. That’s why you left. Isn’t it? Because you wanted something real.”

Sunny hesitates. That’s probably true, but… it’s not the whole truth. But he doesn’t know how to say it.

Omori barks a laugh. “You made it so I couldn't change, and then you changed into someone who didn't want that. Not that I cared,” he adds, bitterly. “I still had my friends. But now they’re changing, too. And I thought… If I brought your stupid friends here and made them face themselves, like we did, then… maybe everything could go back to how it was. But it didn’t. They’re still changing. Everyone is changing, except me. Because that’s how you made me.” He bares his teeth, ablaze with sudden fury. “It isn’t fair! I hate you! I should hate you forever and ever! Till you die and ever after!”

For a second, Sunny is scared that he’s going to get stabbed again. But it only lasts a moment, and then Omori collapses back into his seat.

“After you left,” Omori says. Leaden, resigned. “I. Missed you. Isn’t that stupid? It’s not like you were good company. All you ever did was lay around and cry.”

“I don’t think it’s stupid,” Sunny says quietly.

“Hah. Right. Of course you’d want me to be as pathetic as you. I’m just a memory. Just a scar over something that’s already healed. Being here probably feels nostalgic.”

That’s… not entirely untrue. But saying so would probably also not be very helpful.

“You threw me away and I can’t even hate you,” Omori says. “Or resent you, or—miss you. Because that’s not how you made me. And even if I could, I—” He has to force the words through gritted teeth. “—don’t. Want to.” He barks a laugh. “All you ever gave me was your ugliest, broken-est parts and I still won’t throw them away, because it’s—all I have left. Because I don’t want to lose you. Even after you threw me away.”

“I didn’t throw you away.”

“You—” Omori trips over his tongue. “—What?”

You can read the rest of the finale here: ao3.org/works/45213322/chapters/129661372

#omori fanfic #headspace au #omori spoilers #timeskip #omori sunny #omori #closure #no ships

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budgie2budgie · 4 years

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tiny living, 15/07/19 “…l. faba's garden house is one of the most visited open gardens in the sims world. sims come from all over the place to see rare plants like mandrake roots and valerians but the whole garden is a palette of beautiful flowers. the house itself is only 30 tiles big but the garden with all it's greenery makes it feel bigger. the house and garden is open for visitors 10-5 every day under the season (may-september)

now, who was l. faba, really? we asked our guide and moderator of the l. faba garden society, marianne charm, that question: "- l. faba was a fantastic gardener and a talented herbalist. everything you see around here are planted by her and we are trying to honour her work by taking care of the garden and continue to keep it alive"

so it's not true that l. faba was one of the glimmerbrook spellcasters and that she actually could turn into a crow, so she could steal jewellery from her neighbors?

"- that is just ridiculous! i wish sims could stop spreading rumors about glimmerbrook being a coven for spellcasters, we are just hard working sims that love our gardens!"

and with that, we're leaving glimmerbrook and the l. faba garden house, also known as the 'house of crows' by the locals..."

#sims 4 #ts4 deco room #marianne's life #the charms #glimmerbrook #rotation play #reposting

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cursednymph · 4 years

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was a fun movie to watch however, it had strong parallels to the movies such as Avatar. I think valerian did a great job at creating a world of its own, especially for the pearl people. I think the visual effects were great and fun to watch, also I found the color palette of the film pretty decent as well. It had many cliches and some problems in the scenario, it wasn’t like Luc Besson’s other epic film the fifth element but it was fun to watch and grabbed my attention in its world throughout the movie.

First I would like to comment on the actors. Even though Cara Delevigne is not necessarily an actor and she is a model but I think she did great in it, her acting didn’t bother me at all I was impressed. However, the other big star in the movie Rihanna was the one that surprised me. When I first saw her I was like “What is she doing here?” then she started her performing scene and I thought that they cast her just for a fancy dancing scene so that the movie would sell more. But after her dancing scene she started to involve more in the story and her character Bubble was pretty interesting and the character suited Rihanna and that’s when I understood why they cast her. Bubble added a lot to the movie and made it more interesting and emotional. Yet her death was pretty sudden and unnecessary, I thought like “Oh I guess Rihanna didn’t want to act more in the movie” in my opinion they could’ve developed her character more and maybe in the and she could be the one that helps the pearl people get rid of humans. Despite my judgment of Cara and Rihanna, they did a pretty good job in terms of acting. On the other hand, Valerian as a character was pretty cliche and shallow. I had no problem with the actor but the character was a typical womanizer in the 28th century and when his pretty-looking co-worker didn’t give the attention that he seeks he suddenly becomes a romantic and proposed to Laurine to marry him. I mean the character Laurine was pretty problematic as well she didn’t do much other than consistently try to make Valerian a better person. I think Cara in that sense added something to the character, she added a little bit of tomboyish approach to it and it made the character more likable in my opinion.

Secondly, I loved the pearl people, their design, world, and characteristics interested me more than anything. I think the character designer did an amazing job, they were so naive and elegant. I liked the distinction between male and female being few because that’s how I imagine the aliens. I would love to see more of their world and their way of living. However, their planet getting destroyed by humans for something valuable reminded me of Avatar. I think they could’ve found something unique to apply to the story rather than humans destroying everywhere they go.

In conclusion, the valerian world was like any other sci-fi movie nothing special other than the pearl Alien. The story was filled with cliches and unnecessary dialogues but the visual effects and character design were successfully done. Overall, it is a great movie to kill time.

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thuskindlyshescatters · 5 years

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!!! SANDERS SIDES SPOILERS BELOW !!!

Yet another character has been added to the Sanders Sides storyline, so I created another RWBY OC to fit them into my Team CHLC canon. Introducing Rema Valeriana, a member of Team DARK of which Apate is also a member.

Rema is based off of Remus, the newly introduced Dark Side of Creativity. She borrows his black-and-green color palette, the grey in his hair, and the morning star he fights with (not pictured here). Previously in Team CHLC canon, Cora had a sister who would play a leading role in her character growth, but I never had a stand-in for that character. However, Remus is canonically Creativity’s sort of “exiled” twin brother, so Rema fills that role perfectly! (Cora and Rema, however, are not twins.)

Rema is a spin on Remus, obviously, because I didn’t want to borrow too directly. The name “Valeriana” comes from the scientific name for Valerian, an herb used to treat sleep disorders and anxiety/stress. I find this appropriate because Remus was first introduced to the Sanders Sides as a cause of loss of sleep, and is essentially just an anxiety-inducing dreamer. Also, because I got Apate Tansy’s last name from a plant, I wanted to continue that theme in how the rest of Team DARK’s members are ostensibly named. (Sidenote: Cora and Rema, despite being siblings, live with their divorced parents -- Cora lives with her mother in Vale, and Rema lives with her father in Mistral, which is also why they go to different schools.)

Rema’s Semblance, like how Remus represents intrusive thoughts, is Nightmare, which induces frightening hallucinations in her victim. She can’t control what they see; that’s always just a result of their own fears. All she can do is maintain the illusion.

If you have any questions or thoughts about Rema or any of the other Team CHLC OCs, send me an ask!

#rema valeriana #team dark #rwby oc #my oc #sanders sides au #rwby #my art #my stuff

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carcharadroid · 5 years

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Anyway HoTs Anduin with Valerian color palette skin when?

#how to make me give a proper shit about that game in one easy step #*dox babbles

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eleithel · 6 years

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@valeriane : Oui !!! c’est intéressant comme défi, je n’en avais jamais fait autour de la couleur (à part il y a un moment le “color palette meme” qui m’avait bien plu aussi).

Je ne suis pas trop ambitieuse sur ce défi car je suis toujours plus ou moins en artblock mais... clairement ça m’inspire ?

#comments #answers #valeriane #huevember

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lencreetlaplume · 7 years

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Enki Bilal : Immortel pour la vie "Peut-être que c'est mon passé qui me rend agité, qui me donne envie de continuer à avancer." Fils d'un père bosniaque et d'une mère tchèque, Enki Bilal a passé ses neuf premières années à Belgrade, dans l'ex-Yougoslavie, pays à l'ombre du communisme et toujours aux prises au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Depuis sa jeunesse, Bilal avait une passion pour la bande dessinée et pour le grand écran, allant chaque semaine au cinéma, en particulier dans ses westerns favoris. Quand il avait neuf ans, il a décroché un rôle dans un court métrage réalisé à Belgrade. " Il s'agissait de deux gamins de la rue qui se promenaient dans la ville: ils s'arrêtaient et dessinaient des combats à la craie sur les trottoirs, l'un dessinant des cow-boys, l'autre des Indiens. " Il était aussi un dessinateur en herbe, mais par chance, il a dû quitter son pays avant la fin du film. Il n'a jamais découvert ce qui lui est arrivé, après que lui et sa famille aient quitté la ville troublée et se soient réinstallés en 1961 à Paris. Pour lui, la France était une nouvelle vie, et une nouvelle culture, du cinéma et de la bande dessinée ou de la bande dessinée. Au début des années 1970, il découvre sa première vocation en tant qu'artiste de BD, lorsqu'il remporte un concours de talents pour le magazine Pilote, à la maison depuis 1959 d' Astérix et à l'époque à la pointe de la révolution BD naissante. Ici, et plus tard dans Metal Hurlant , Bilal a commencé à écrire et à dessiner une série de courtes histoires SF, dont deux livres viennent d'être rassemblés dans un volume de Memories, le dernier dans les collections de la bibliothèque Bilal de Humanoids et DC Comics. Son collaborateur le plus important à Pilote était l'écrivain renommé Pierre Christin. Ensemble, ils ont développé une trilogie de contes contemporains de satires fantastiques, en partie sociales, en partie des refroidisseurs inspirés par HP Lovecraft, mis en place dans différentes villes actuelles assaillies par des forces mystérieuses. Ces trois histoires formatives sont compilées dans Townscapes . L'espionnage, le changement de régime, le terrorisme et la résistance étaient des ingrédients dans les projets postérieurs de Bilal et Christin, plus chargés politiquement, The Black Order Brigade et The Hunting Party sont combinés dans le livre The Chaos Effect . L'art de Bilal a évolué vers une plus grande sophistication, en s'éloignant des lignes détaillées vers un rendu plus entièrement peint et une palette de couleurs plus riche. Bilal a fait sa plus grande percée dans les bandes dessinées lorsqu'il est allé en solo sur son premier roman graphique complet Gods In Chaos en 1980. Alcide Nikopol est un homme qui est tombé sur terre, après avoir été suspendu en animation suspendue, emprisonné dans l'espace pour désertion. Sa misérable vie mortelle s'altère radicalement, lorsqu'il est ressuscité à Paris, blessé mais inchangé 20 ans plus tard dans un monde où tout le monde a vieilli. Sa jambe manquante est remplacée par une greffe de métal soudée par Horus, un renégat étranger à tête de faucon nu, qui ressemble à son homonyme, le dieu égyptien. Nikopol ne peut plus s'appeler sa vie ou son corps, parce que Horus a besoin de le posséder pour agir comme son instrument de vengeance contre ses compagnons dieux, planant dans leur vaisseau spatial pyramidal au-dessus de Paris. La politique du pouvoir mondial s'est transformée en un cirque bizarre. À l'intérieur du corps de Nikopol, Horus s'infiltre dans les chambres du gouverneur peint Choublanc (français pour perdant) et s'empare du pouvoir dans la capitale française. Nikopol découvre que sa femme, maintenant morte, avait un fils, maintenant le même âge que lui et pratiquement son jumeau. Bilal revient à la saga en 1986 avec The Woman Trap , présentant la femme fatale exotique Jill Bioskop (le mot serbe pour le cinéma), un reporter aux cheveux bleus du futur avec du sang sur les mains. Il a finalement terminé la saga en 1992 à Cold Equator . Les visions de Bilal révèlent une dystopie décadente, accablante et baroque, inspirée par des réalisateurs comme Andrei Tarkowsky de Solaris et Stalker . Son complot est dense, imprévisible, et fait vraiment l'objet d'une attention particulière. Il y a aussi un humour noir et absurde, de la maudite composition des politiciens et du chat exotique dépouillé Gogol aux championnats du monde de boxe d'échecs. En tout, The Nikopol Trilogy a pris douze ans à Bilal, alors qu'il poursuivait son autre grande obsession et sa carrière éventuelle, le cinéma. Alain Resnais, un grand admirateur, a fait une pause importante en lui donnant la chance de concevoir l'affiche et quelques décors en verre peint pour ses films. Une autre occasion s'est présentée en 1983, lorsque le réalisateur Michael Mann tournait The Keep . Malheureux avec le regard du monstre, il a embauché Bilal, parce qu'il était familier avec ses albums. Bilal a appris de Mann que tous les albums d'artistes BD français comme Druillet, Moebius, Mézières et lui-même traînaient dans tous les studios de cinéma américains. Ils les copiaient depuis des années. Ce n'est pas un grand secret que George Lucas ait été fortement influencé dans Star Wars par les albums de Valerian (iBooks) écrits par Christin et dessinés par Mézières, du look du Millennium Falcon à la scène du bar alien. Moebius et Dan O'Bannon ont essentiellement créé une grande partie de l'ambiance et du style de Blade Runner dans leur collaboration The Long Tomorrow des années plus tôt. Heureusement, les réalisateurs ont commencé à demander à ces artistes visionnaires de contribuer officiellement aux productions. Bilal a été engagé pour produire des dessins préparatoires pour Le Nom de la Rose , par exemple. Avec l'aide de Resnais, Bilal a dirigé son premier film en 1988, le Bunker Palace Hotel , dans le même avenir décadent et sensuel de ses romans graphiques. Après avoir réalisé son deuxième long métrage Tykho Moon , Bilal réalise son troisième film en 2004, son plus ambitieux et son plus gros budget à ce jour. Immortel Ad Vivam , ou Immortal For Life , réinterprète des parties de The Nikopol Trilogy et combine l'action en direct avec l'imagerie numérique bleue basée sur ses œuvres d'art, pour les décors incroyablement réalisés, les paysages urbains et les personnages étrangers, y compris les dieux égyptiens aliens. Le film a reçu des éloges et a bien joué en France, quand il est sorti. Cela aurait dû faire le nom de Bilal à l'international et en anglais en particulier. Malheureusement, mis à part quelques projections de festivals et une sortie limitée au Canada, il n'a pour l'instant pas réussi à obtenir une sortie générale cinématographique appropriée au Royaume-Uni ou aux États-Unis. Il est difficile de rivaliser avec la machine massive d'Hollywood. Immortel est déjà sorti en DVD, mais mérite vraiment d'être vu au cinéma. Visitez Immortel-Le Film pour goûter la bande-annonce et plus encore. De retour à BD, le plus récent album de Bilal est The Beast Trilogy , un psychodrame succulent et stimulant sur un homme au souvenir total. Cela est sorti en 2004 sous la forme recueillie dans la première trilogie que j'ai jamais vu avec seulement les deux premières parties, The Dormant Beast et Décembre 32 . Frustrant, mais il faudra le faire pour l'instant, en attendant qu'il termine la partie finale. Connaissant la nature agitée de Bilal, il ne tardera pas à revenir à sa passion pour la création de bandes dessinées.

#enki bilal #dessinateur #bd #comics #bande dessinée #trilogie

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blacknerdproblems · 6 years

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Writer: Lewis Trondheim, Zep / Artist: Dominique Bertail / Lion Forge Comics

The opening pages of Infinity 8 #1 are immediately reminiscent of other pulp sci-fi stories. The bright color palette and oddball character designs are both unlike anything you’ve ever seen before and instantly familiar. It’s easy to flip through the book and think of The Fifth Element, Babylon 5, and even more recently Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. But Infinity 8 is even more cavalier with its approach of the “thousands of aliens races coexisting in a relatively small space” premise and then promptly distinguishes itself with its greater mythology arc.

Agent Yoko Keren is our tough-as-nails agent, with a dry sense of a humor and a clever play on the typically male badass rogue cop. When the massive ship detects an odd anomaly on the scans, it’s up to Keren to investigate it and the various implications. Trondheim and Zep deliver on a slow burn of discovery and inter-species interactions. The dialog is snappy and gives just enough exposition to keep the reader in the know without drowning us in the text. Yet, the grand overarching nature of the interstellar means that this first issue is just barely able to lay down the roots for the rest of the story, although the final page has one hell of a hook.

Read on here. [x]

#infinity 8 #comic book review #blacknerdproblems #black nerd problems #Lion Force Comics

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quaxorascal · 6 years

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2, 13, 19, for the dnd meme!

Thank you lovely!! (from here)

2. Your favorite character that someone else has played.

Noooo I can’t choose, I love them all for different reasons

I love Aracelli for how there’s clearly stuff going on in her head even when she isn’t saying anything and for how resourceful she is, and I love Agatha for how eager she is to be silly and the fact that you laugh a lot while playing her

I love Belasco’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge that he sees his teammates as friends even though it’s obvious, I love Yml for the distinct lack of fucks she gives, and I love Minnow for the wild shit that comes out of her mouth, namely “Sasparilla is worth more than all of your lives” @bimercenary

I love Ezekiel for the way he can speak Celestial because he’s a nerd and the way he knows how to make his own black powder, and I admittedly don’t remember a whole lot about Rylter but I’m so excited to meet him again on Saturday because I love him too @theraveninhisstudy

I love how hard Stellio tries to make friends and to solve problems because he believes it’s the right thing to do, and I can’t wait to properly meet Gakur @samusthedude

I love how Callista lets the gang get away with so much because even when we (but especially Fyf and Ven) wear her patience thin, we’re still her family

I love how Morris is the unluckiest goddamned halfling I have ever heard of, and yet he doesn’t let that get him down

I love how confident Rhys is in herself, and I love how much Valerian loves her sister (and the fact that she’s literally a deals warlock) @actuallyaltaria

I love every single DnD character I’ve ever come across, and if I didn’t mention yours here it’s just because I don’t know them well enough to gush

13. Introduce your current party.

I have a handful of parties and y’all are gonna hear the shittiest descriptions I have for All Of Them

First we have the two doses of Disappointment Child (Aracelli and Taber) and the 16-year-old that they allow to tell lies for them (Belasco

Then there’s the old lady (Agatha), her 19-year-old unwilling body guard (Ezekiel), The Shortie Squad (Minnow and Wilver), and The Shortie Squad’s moose (Sasparilla)

Then we have an undead edgelord (Yml), sunshine personified (Niamh), the only normal one (Rylter), and we’re about to pick up a pissed-off gnome with a weapon bigger than he is (Gakur)

And in the near future there’ll be the two chatty elves of opposing alignments (Tilia and Shuvermhel) who drag their new friends – a steaky-stab lizard (Leonidas) and a hacky-slash dude (Desert Wanderer) – together into a group because damnit, their alignments may be opposite but elves have to stick together!

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions?

God I passed my own dice superstitions onto Callista and Stellio’s players and it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever done

We Eversong people all have our own dice hoards of various sizes, as well as our own superstitions, like prerolling the d20s before we play and preferring our Borealis dice for high rolls. I reserve a specific colour out of the character’s palette for certain skills, or use certain dice because they’re relevant to the situation. That worked super fucking well for me a couple of weeks back btw so I stand by that superstition ;0

#I Love Dungeons And Dragons #God that first question got out of hand fast but I'm okay with that #QR 'n A #sleepyspoonie #DnD talk #Yeah let's tag the parties too #Taber party #Wilver party #Niamh party #Shuvermhel party #cursing/

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valkariel · 3 years

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Azeyma - Keeper of the Sun

» Eternal Bonding / Wedding Banquet «

Azeyma of the Twelve, but with Far Eastern styling. Mainly focused on red/gold color palette and fire themes.

Valerian Earrings of Casting for symmetrical earring look alternative.

Also good bridal garments for a Doman/Yanxia-styled wedding! This will be one of her wedding banquet glams.

Note: Pre-6.1 alliance raid. Now that there’s an official Azeyma of the Twelve, this is more accurately described as my “Azem”.

Head: Peacock Hat - ruby red Body: Replica Dreadwyrm Robe of Casting - dalamud red Hands: Kokuko Tekko - metallic brass Legs: Asuran Hakama of Healing - metallic brass Feet: Peacock Shoes - ruby red

Ears: Dai-ryumaku Earring of Casting Neck: The Emporer's New Necklace Wrists: The Emporer's New Bracelet Right Ring: The Emporer's New Ring Left Ring: The Emporer's New Ring

Main Hand: Suzaku's Flame-kissed Rod Off Hand: none

Fashion Accessories: none

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worldbuildingds · 4 years

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Week #12

Asteroid Rationale:

U.F.G Cadets takes place in an expansive universe with many important locations. One that our group thought was most important was the U.F.G academy located on an asteroid orbiting the federation planet. Above is one of my iterations of what I thought the academy would look like. Our writer wanted the design of the buildings to become apart of the landscape itself, he suggested looking at the Greek islands as reference.

Azan Rationale:

Azan is a very powerful character, though he and the others are yet to find out. His powers are hinted at by the size of his limbs-In my design his left arm is larger than the rest due to its power being activated. I also designed him so that he has two physical states. In his normal state he only has two arms, where as in fight or flight mode he can have up to four arms active at a time. One of the challenges of designing Azan was to illustrate that he was a humanoid starfish. After a few rough iterations at the beginning and some help from my team we decided that the shape of his head would be the main indicator of his ‘starfish nature’. As for Azan’s aesthetic, the group and I decided to use inspiration from old anime and comic books such as Valerian. The colours I chose for Azan reflective of his personality. He is quiet and shy on the inside (blue), but has moments of strength and passion (red) and so I combined these attributes and used a violet colour palette.

Line art Rationale:

After the interim Molly and I decided to jumble up the work loads, based on some of our interim sketches, Molly drew up the final compositions for the pitch bible. After she was finished, it was my job to go over them and add in the line art/details. This took me longer than I thought it would, due to making sure the characters looked consistent. We were aiming for a comic book-old anime style, so I used a sketchy brush for some of the outlines.

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gordonwilliamsweb · 5 years

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8 Tips for Creating a Relaxing Home

It seems like everyone wants a home that feels like a retreat: an environment that’s soothing, uplifting, and beautiful. Many of us are taking inspiration from the Danish word hygge (pronounced hoo-gah), which is all about creating a cozy home that inspires connection and a sense of well-being. Natural fibers, pale colors, and lights with a soft, warm glow are hallmarks of this style.

Others are embracing minimalism, paring down their possessions to the essentials that make them happy, as advised by Marie Kondo. As she likes to say, only surround yourself with objects that "spark joy." The idea has been so popular that charities received record levels of clothing and housewares donations in 2018 and 2019.

8 Tips For Creating a Relaxing Home

Whether you live in a studio apartment, condo, or house, it’s easy to make your home an oasis of calm by following these strategies.

1. Eliminate Clutter

There are many reasons to have an organized, clutter-free home. You’ll save time because you can find your keys and phone easily. And you won’t waste money buying duplicate items because you can't find the other one! Did you know clutter in the home can even create anxiety?[1]

Start by decluttering main areas like the kitchen, office, living room, dining room, and bedrooms. Bag up anything you haven’t used in a year or two; chances are you won’t even miss it. Tackle the closet with a good friend, and donate clothes that don’t fit, are out of style, or are unflattering.

Consider getting rid of anything that doesn’t make you smile or bring a pleasant memory or thought — even if it was a gift. You can still be grateful for the spirit behind the gift without keeping the object.

Donate everything to charity and feel good knowing someone else can benefit from your former treasures. You’ll be left with a home full of lovely items that make you feel good when you see them.

2. Embrace Cozy: The Hygge Way

The Danes have a concept known as hygge, which — while not easily translated to a single word — embraces the notion of "cozy." From a warm cup of tea to gathering around the fire, the concept of hygge makes Denmark’s long winters more pleasant.

It’s such a defining part of the Danish way of life that Meik Wiking, author of "The Little Book of Hygge" and CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, wrote that hygge is to Danes what freedom is to Americans.

Hygge is about keeping things simple and inviting warmth and friendship. It’s no wonder that Denmark ranks among the happiest countries in the world! Though conceptualized for winters, you can practice hygge year-round. The decor involves a minimalist style with natural fabrics and pale neutrals.

Fire and warmth are essential components of hygge. Having a fireplace is great, but candles are an important component as well. Throw blankets are another easy, cost-effective way to add coziness and comfort to your home.

Some things don’t create a sense of hygge, such as staring at your phone all day. Instead, wrap up with your cozy knit throw around a fire, put on some thick socks, and spend the evening reading or catching up with a friend.

3. Employ the Healing Power of Nature

Let the sunlight in! Also, open the windows regularly to refresh the air in your home. The healing power of nature is one component of the hygge approach. Many of the same tenets underlie biophilic design, a science-backed approach focused on natural materials that support wellness.

Opt for pillows, rugs, towels, and clothing made from minimally processed wool, silk, cotton, and linen. Stock your kitchen with glass and ceramics, rather than plastics. Extend that same ethos to your furniture, seeking out pieces made from wood and natural fabrics, which look timeless. Plus, minimally processed natural materials won’t release harmful volatile organic compounds.

Choose cotton or silk sheets with a wool mattress topper to draw heat and moisture away from your body. A bed topped with wool, silk, or cotton will keep you cooler than foam, which holds heat. Plus, foam is made with petroleum, so it releases toxins and bad smells.

Green plants are an essential part of a soothing home environment. Just seeing ferns and other green plants can make you feel calmer and happier.

4. Decorate With Harmonious Colors

Painting your entire home with a complementary color palette helps set a tranquil tone. "If you have a lot of bright colors and there’s no continuity, it creates a clashing feeling," says Curt F., a residential developer who lives in California’s Sonoma wine country. "Each room should flow from one room to the next, so everything works together."

Some designers suggest choosing a favorite piece of fabric you like and drawing all the colors in your home from that palette. If you like pale colors, choose non-toxic white paint colors with different tints, mixed with neutrals such as tan, taupe, and wood tones.

Blue, a primary color from the sky and ocean, instills a peaceful atmosphere, and blue light during the day can help your body relax more quickly.[2]

5. Turn Your Bath Into a Spa

Even when you’re doing everything you can to stay balanced and healthy, life’s little aggravations can get to you. When that happens, unwind by turning your bath into a mini spa.

Put houseplants and naturally-scented candles in your bathroom. Draw a hot bath and add a few drops of your favorite calming essential oils like lavender, chamomile, rose, or ylang-ylang. Next, dump a cup of plain Epsom salt in the water — they’re loaded with magnesium to relax your muscles.

Dim the light, turn on your relaxation playlist, and sip some tulsi tea, which one researcher called "liquid yoga" for its calming and mind-clearing effects.[3, 4] You can also try valerian, a time-tested herb for restful slumber. Global Healing’s Organic Valerian Raw Herbal Extract™ can help you fall asleep and stay asleep longer, without any grogginess the next day.

Afterward, put on a soft cotton robe, settle into a comfy chair, and spritz your face with Aquaspirit®, our refreshing facial mist.

6. Design the Perfect Bedroom

Think of your bedroom as a sanctuary for sleep and sex — that’s it. Banish the TV from your sleeping space, and charge your phone elsewhere. Electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) from phones and tablets can disrupt brain waves in some people.[5] Others even turn off their Wi-Fi signal during sleep hours.[6]

Consider painting the walls of your bedroom a deep, dreamy shade of blue, which encourages relaxation.[7] Up the ante with blackout curtains. As bedtime approaches, unwind by reading a book while sipping tea with a few drops of valerian extract.

Boost your relaxation level with an eye mask or a scent diffuser with lavender essential oil. And be sure to keep things cool in the bedroom, since it’s easier to drift off to sleep when the temperature is between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

7. Set the Mood With Sound

Listening to soothing music, whether you like New Age, classical, or folk, can reduce the heart rate.[8] Create a playlist of your favorite soothing songs — anything with 60 to 80 beats per minute induces relaxation.

"To me, music really creates a mood. Life should have a soundtrack," says Curt F. "I like to start out the day with music that’s going to give a sense of peace, calm, and tranquility," he says of his playlist, which is similar to spa music.

If you want to create a soothing soundscape that’s less distracting than music, try nature sounds of wind, water, or chirping birds. Listening to sounds like these shifts the brain from the stressed-out fight-or-flight status to calm parasympathetic mode. The tenser you are, the bigger the potential drop in heart rate and blood pressure. Not to mention that listening to nature leads to better sleep.[9]

8. Prime Yourself to Relax

One of the essential steps in creating a relaxing home is priming yourself to reap the benefits — which include less stress and better sleep. Make sure you’re taking care of your mind, body, and spirit.

Eat a balanced diet with lots of organic vegetables and fruit, along with probiotics and gut-friendly foods. Did you know that having a healthy population of flora in your digestive tract can have a powerful effect on your mood and mental state? Then you can relax in your home environment, making the most of your days and evenings.

Consider resetting your system with a colon cleanse if you’ve been overeating meat, sugary foods, alcohol, or bread. Set aside time regularly for meditation, a spiritual practice, and physical exercise, such as yoga, Pilates, or a brisk walk in nature.

Remember that all these suggestions are cumulative. Once you start clearing out the clutter, bringing in nature, and making other changes, you’ll notice that you’re feeling calmer at home.

Points to Remember

There are many things you can do to create a more relaxing home. Eliminate clutter and unneeded possessions, then decorate with cooling, comfortable natural materials like cotton, wool, silk, and wood. Use green plants liberally. Paint your entire home in harmonious colors so rooms flow together seamlessly.

When tension mounts, unwind in a spa-style bath with essential oils, Epsom salt, and tulsi tea. Make your bedroom a tech-free sanctuary that’s dark, cool, and only for sleep or intimacy. Create a calm mood with a playlist of songs with 60 to 80 beats per minute.

Most of these steps will work best to relax you if you prime your body and mind for relaxation by eating healthfully and getting regular exercise. Follow these steps, and your home will become an inviting, tranquil, and healing space.

Have you tried any of these tips, or do you have your own ideas for creating a relaxing home? Share in the comments below!

The post 8 Tips for Creating a Relaxing Home appeared first on Dr. Group's Healthy Living Articles.

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