#violence cw (raiders lol)

[the-iron-orchid]

Rimworld: Arcana, Part 12: Interesting Times

Heron high on that Doctor’s Sausage yo 🌭

Jinana wanna go bust some rocks of hir own lmao

Hmmm, I mean we could use some extra hands around here...

Dis bitch pretty good, actually, we have several people who are capable caregivers so that incapability doesn’t hurt. Passionate about Mining? Welcome aboard!

That’s fair, it’s been a tad dull around here...

The new arrival attends the party, and is already making some friends!

Neat! More on this later...

The two combatants we rescued earlier have recovered and gone on their way, gaining us quite a bit of goodwill from their faction.

...what the hell ass balls? (It’s a creature from a Caves mod lmao)

Turel continuing to make peculiar masterworks, very on-brand

Sigh. Well, at least we got her to mine like 1000 units of steel for us first!

Here’s how it went down: Jinana walked out of the clinic, all unsuspecting, and Conner bashed hir with the revolver - nothing Jinana can’t sleep off, really. (if the target is too close, a gun-using pawn will start using it melee-style lmao).

Meanwhile, Tsedi was coming back from the latrine, and shot this bitch dead without taking a single hit himself. MVP.

A cargo pod! It collapsed the cave around it and is impossible to retrieve. :D Thanks, Randy... (fortunately it’s just a normal steel longsword, nothing special)

Turel is so happy, he could just... cut somebody open 😅 (His Medical is actually very good, we just have no need for any surgeries right now...)

Augh! I’ve never had drop-pod raiders this early in the game before...

They land directly in Turel and Jinana’s bedroom (fortunately they were able to get out of the way before the roof collapsed). Heron jumps out of bed, sword at the ready...

Jett here immediately uses dynamite, taking out his raiding buddy in the blast. Heron chases him down while Julian runs around in panic, and Tsedi is coming round with his trusty Masterwork chain shotgun.

Looks like Tsedi got in a shot before that guy’s own ally exploded his fucking head and torso with dynamite. gj

Sadly, Turel’s Excellent-quality bed was destroyed, but we did get 54 Neutroamine out of it! (Remember, that is used to make medicine, and it is very hard to come by)

No sooner are we cleaning up the mess, then... geez, Randy, no fucking mercy huh?

Uh, we’re a little busy at the moment... also, aren’t you the guys that sent an infiltrator earlier? Eh, whatever, sure, send your crazed manhunting goats. We’ll see what happens when they run into these raiders 😂

Carnage. All manhunting goats are downed, and some of the raiders are fleeing. The rest are, predictably, making a beeline for our bug neighbors.

Also predictably, it does not go well for them. However, this guy got a weirdly lucky shot on the female Megaspider before he went down...

...and injured her brain, rendering her comatose. It’s possible to go rescue her when the male goes to sleep at night, but I’m not sure we can actually do anything for her. Her injuries are not severe enough for her to bleed to death, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen to her. She may eventually just starve. :c

The new block of rooms is proceeding apace - we can use these for anything from new colonists to makeshift holding cells to housing guests. However, we’re currently maxed out on power, and we’re going to have to build another generator, which consumes resources.

Spring has arrived, and the growing season begins in a few days. This time, we hope to:

Attract some bees

Grow enough rice and corn for the next winter

Cultivate some fruit trees

Before the next winter comes, we should build at least one greenhouse, so we have a more reliable source of winter food. We made it through the winter with enough food left to get by until spring’s first crop of rice is harvested... but just barely!

Will we finally get some bees? What will happen to the female megaspider? Find out next time!

[tamayokny]

jonah: lara...holy shit!

[beaniegara]

11 Questions

tagged both by @yaboybergara​ and @ricky-goldsworth​ which is great because that gives me 22 questions mwahhahaha thank you folks!! <3 

RULES

1. always post the rules

2. answer the questions given by the person who tagged you

3. write 11 questions of your own

4. tag 11 people you want to get to know better (or however many you want)

now, see, I don’t know what to ask........ so I’m gonna be a little shit and tag folks to pick 11 of these 22 questions and answer them too. nini and gray pls don’t sue me for reusing your questions, thank fdgkfndgfdsk I’m tagging @kaylotta, @queerunsolved, @haunted-gays, @thatmademadej, and @i-am-ghost-proof-baby <3 if yall wanna do it, of course. no pressure.

this is incredibly long (and uncomfortably honest). let’s go lesbians let’s go

first, nini’s questions:

1. How many pets have you had in your life?

one. I’ve always wanted them but my mom and I have always lived in tiny apartments and had no way to care for a pet so it wasn’t until I was 17 that we adopted a kitten!! his name was merlin and he was the laziest, moodiest lil ball of fluff I’ve ever met. I.. had to give him away a year later because we moved to a place even smaller that wouldn’t allow pets so long story short I’m scarred for life and don’t think I can ever take any more pets without feeling guilty to my bone 

this is merlin btw I love him with all my heart and he now lives in a farm. as far as I know anyway.. :(

2. Do you believe in destiny? Why?

mmm interesting question. weird, metaphysical theories aside, I don’t believe anything is set in stone per se, but I do believe that some things are just... meant to be? in a way? for example, you can’t tell me ryan and shane weren’t meant to be friends and find each other in such an unlikely place as they did. one of my mottos, completely stripped from context because it’s from a rather pretentious tv show, is “the universe is rarely so lazy”. meaning that good things happen for a reason, and that you trailed that path for that to happen. yknow what I’m saying? I can’t really explain this without writing a 10 page essay because that’s just how my gemini ass thinks 

3. If you could chose one person on the great beyond, would you take the chance to talk to them? 

you mean someone who has passed away? oh yeah, I would talk to my grandmother. she was raising me and died when she was 4 and that changed not only my entirely life but our whole extended family dynamic... so many questions.

4. From all your hobbies, which one would you love to make a living of?

oh man, writing. I’ve been dreaming of being a writer ever since I was 9 or something. never panned out but that would certainly be the dream. if I could work with videos, subtitling, tv shows, cinema etc that would also be dope as hell!

5. What’s your favorite color palette to wear?

fkgjfsdgiusfdksd I have no fashion sense whatsoever, idk? I do like to wear dark clothes (because weight..) and reds (because pale).

6. What’s your opinion on queerbaiting?

I don’t have the time for it. for starters, it’s something that usually comes from people with very poor writing skills that can’t come up with plots interesting enough to keep viewers/readers hooked in. that already says something. no offense to anyone who is a fan of shows like these, but when it’s mostly written by white men I just don’t have any high hopes for it. you can ask flavs what my reaction was like when I realized the character I had headcanon’ed as wlw in hannibal was actually a wlw. I couldn’t believe it, because what???? since when does that happen, especially in a show run by a white man??? kjdfghsjgd 

I think this is part of a bigger conversation but my point is, don’t fall for it. I know it’s all part of the fight for representation, asking big names to produce big shows with lgbtq+ characters in it and so on, but for the love of god, watch something else too!!!! let GOT rot and die!!!!!!!!! look up different, smaller, cheaper shows, that’s where you find lgbtq+ content creators!!!!!! there’s so many wlw webseries out there, you wouldn’t believe it. you have a choice. don’t give any more of your time and love and word-of-mouth to shows/movies that clearly have no interest in being more diverse. they don’t deserve you. 

and that’s not to say any of it is on us. quite on the contrary, they’re using us. but aside from calling out their bullshit, we do have a chance to boost lgbtq+ content creators. don’t let them fool you into thinking they’re doing you any favors, or that they’re our last chance so we should be paying attention to what they’re doing/saying. fuck them!!!! you can’t queerbait me because I don’t trust you or give you the chance to do it. and you can shove your very straight, very white shows where the sun doesn’t shine, @ hollywood.  

7. Is there a language you would love to speak?

french and korean, mostly. I can understand a little bit of both, but I really wish I was fluent :( oh, will to live and learn, where art thou...

8. Do you have, like, a dream so wild you think it’s impossible?

kjgnsfdkjhjjs having enough money to support myself and my mother??? I don’t have any big, wild dreams, I think. just.......... living comfortably would be a+  

9. How many AUs of your own life do you have in your head?

oh man. I keep thinking about living somewhere in idk iceland or scotland just like... tending goats or something. that’s the most comfortable version of myself I can think of.

I also like to imagine if I could handle being a film director, because that sounds like fun. maybe a screenwriter? anything creative in films, really. 

there’s also the unattainable dream of having a wife and idk maybe adopting a kid? and we’d just. support each other. and love each other. and that’s just. I. [cries]

I like to think how things would be if I were actually hot and not socially awkward.. I’d be someone completely different, basically lol 

10. If you were to meet your younger self, do you think they would think you cool or not?

oh god, younger me would hate present me D: I had such high hopes for myself, I had lots of dreams lol never in a million years did I think I’d be where I am today...

11. Not a question, but please add something postive about yourself, something that you love about you.

IDJFSSIODUGSDFKGDSJ IT’S LIKE YOU KNEW I’D BE A NEGATIVE FUCK, NINI. I................................ I like that I have an easy time with languages? or with classes in general. I like to learn from people, I’m just really unmotivated to leave the house lol 

now onto gray’s q’s:

1. What’s your favourite music video of all time?

straight-up impossible questions right out of the gate huh I SEE YOU, GRAY. I SEE YOU kjdfgjfsdhgkdsjfs

I’ll have to go with a few,

“prototype” by viktoria modesta is just GORGEOUS. I can’t get over this video & song and it’s been years.

“jackpot” by block b looks creepy as shit but the context makes it such a clever yet fun video. take into account that these guys were screwed over by the kpop company that created the group, and that the lyrics talk about hitting jackpot in an industry that’s savage to say the least. to me this video is a visual representation of what a dangerous trap entertainment companies are in the kpop industry, and it also ties in with the groups’ story of being made into dolls by a company and then telling them to fuck off in the end lol 

“treat me like your mother” by the dead weather. I don’t know why I just love it. (cw: gun violence)

“emperor’s new clothes” by panic! at the disco. I MEAN, LOOK AT IT.

“manyo maash” by puer kim. I just love the aesthetic?

honorable mention: “tick tick boom” by the hives because that’s a banger. ba dum tssss.

2. What’s a favourite memory of yours?

I have plenty of good memories, thank god. I think one of my favorites is just hanging out with my friends in 2008-9; one of their older brothers was driving us around town, we were listening to the white stripes at full volume, singing along, all sitting pressed up close together in his shitty car. man, my teenage years would’ve been fantastic if I had stayed there with them!! 

3. Do you play video games? If so, which one’s your favourite?

I DO!!! I mean, not as much as I’d like because a) no money to spare on games/consoles, and b) I suck at basically everything. but I’m obsessed with paladins these days, and I’m also a big fan of LOTRO. I like horror games--mostly the resident evil and silent hill type--and fps. I grew up playing some tomb raider, medal of honor, resident evil... oh, those were the days. 

4. How did you first get into [your fandom of choice]?

with bfu it was that kind of thing where I’d see a meme or two cross my dash and it was always this ridiculous screenshot, or those “that’s it, that’s the show” kinda things with dozens of thousands of notes... until one day I was incredibly anxious, and I needed to watch something or I’d never finish the assignments I had for college. so I just thought “oh hey I should check out that unsolved thing people like so much, it’s buzzfeed so it’s probably good bg noise to work with” lol and it did work, and I did finish my assignments, and that means that I first watched the show barely paying any attention to it because I was busy doing something else. but ryan’s and shane’s voices helped me relax and to this day they still help a lot with my anxiety, to the point that I need to keep coming back every minute or so during episodes because I get distracted just listening to their voices and not absorbing a word lol

5. How did you first get into fandom in general?

uhh.. well, I was a big “pottermaniac” (that’s how I called it) since I was 9, but that was before I realized fandom was a Thing on the internet too. I remember when I was maybe 10 or 11, I entered a chatroom (god, those were wild) just in time to see someone saying in all caps HARRY POTTER IS GREAT AND YOU’RE ALL DUMB FOR NOT SEEING IT or something fkdsjgfdugfsdk and it was this girl using the nickname fawkes. she was older than me, I think that 15 or something, and we exchanged addresses (!!! how am I alive!!!) and were pen pals for a while. but it took me so fucking long to actually find the fandom online that I think my first brush with it was with the arctic monkeys forum I found online in 2008, where I mistakenly said I liked “the muse” and people laughed at me so I never went back to it lol then in 2010 I found out about kpop and that’s when I really dived head-first into fandom life. took me long enough (tbf I was very against the notion of being a “fan” because I was an idiot).

6. What’s at the top of your bucket list?

great fucking question. no idea. I guess.. traveling overseas? if we’re talking wild, distant things. but closer to my reality, getting a job that pays me at least the minimum wage disjgdfgkfsdk #fuckinternships

7. What’s something not many people know about you?

I love dancing and miss it like hell.

8. What’s your favourite medium for storytelling - movie, book, television, musical, comic, internet video, video game, something else? Why that medium?

ohhhhhhh this is an interesting question. as much as I love writing, and think that’s one of the best things we humans have ever come up with, I do love.. musicals? not necessarily theater--although that’s great and I’d sell my soul to see chicago live--but I love the idea of telling stories through music. I really wish we could bring back the custom of telling stories orally, and through music, and that we could as society agree that collective singing is beautiful and should be reintroduced in our day-to-day lives. sure listening to (1) artist singing is great but hAVE YOU TRIED SINGING ALONG DURING A CONCERT WHERE EVERYONE ELSE IS SINGING TOO? best fucking feeling in the world. 

we had two bands in brazil, in different periods of time, that were so incredibly famous they’re still cornerstones in our music history. one was legião urbana, some folk-ey rock band that had a couple of songs telling these really long stories that I LOVE with all my heart. faroeste caboclo is our bohemian rhapsody, most people my age or older know the lyrics to it. and mamonas assassinas was this comical (?) rock band that sang dumb, fun songs that usually told stories too and that was the best. I miss that kinda thing. 

9. What’s your favourite food?

red meat, mainly churrasco. but I also can’t live without chocolate milk AND the whopper. capitalism has me by the stomach.

10. Do you have a joke to share?

fjgfsdgskfdgfsk I don’t.. it’s been so long since I last tried telling a joke, I don’t think I know any?

11. What song/artist helped you through your struggles?

pitty has been a big part of my life for some 14-odd years now. “be ok” by ingrid michaelson and “starlight” by muse were my anthems when depression hit hard during my teenage years. the white stripes has also been a constant, with gems like “blue orchid” and “a martyr for my love for you” turning into sort of theme songs for certain parts of my life. choi sam helped me through college. and even though they were a huge disappointment to the point that I stopped listening to them altogether, block b gave me a good 4 or 5 years of distraction from life.

[the-iron-orchid]

Rimworld: Arcana, Part 10: Exit, Pursued By a Megaspider

Randy, in his infinite generosity, has given us... a single synthread vest of Normal quality. *kazoo noise*

It’s just now winter (the quadrum of Decembary), and it’s so cold that our food is definitely gonna stay frozen, even without power. However, people will work more slowly and be mad about sleeping in the cold.

So, I have intentionally been keeping our wealth down, because more wealth attracts more and better-equipped raiders over time. (Those red dots mark raids.) Also, the wealthier you are, the higher your colonists’ expectations and the more it takes to keep them happy. Buuuuuut... you do get to a point where you just have to expand, so that you can support your growing colony through the ever-increasing challenges that the game throws at you.

Winter is very cold here, and we’re maxing out our available electricity keeping bedrooms comfortable (remember, sleeping in the cold gives pawns a negative mood) and warming workspaces (pawns work slower in cold environments). This here is an investment in future hot water and radiators, at a lot less research cost than full-on geothermal electricity. We have six geothermal vents on this map, we should make use of them!

Meanwhile, we start expanding our crafting and dining/rec rooms.

Gettin so much of that inspirational diq that s/he kicks Julian out of the research chair, let’s goooooooo

Why is s/he so happy? S/he still has Low expectations because the colony is not very wealthy, and s/he’s getting that diq action on the regular. The addition of more types of recreation keeps hir from being bored. That bed Turel made is incredibly comfortable, apparently. Heron has been making nothing but Fine Meals with fruits in them to help boost spirits, and the rooms are nice enough to add small mood boosts of their own. The only downside is Roomba coming in late and waking hir up briefly, lmao

...I mean, I have to admire their tenacity ig, it’s the middle of the damned night

These two in the north ‘prepare’ by milling about and cracking jokes.

This would be a pretty good pawn, if I could recruit her.

This one has negative social traits, but I find it odd that they’re both Fun-Loving. Why did they send their Party Girls to assault my base?

Meanwhile, these two in the south talk about... pets and cute animals to pass the time.

Hines here is fantastic, I really hope I can down him and recruit him instead of killing him outright...

Even as I roust our colonists out of bed to face the threat, these two fools ignore the perimeter wall completely, and make a beeline to go party with the bugs.

The other two follow suit, and soon Hines here is the only one left standing, bravely fleeing for his life from this Megaspider (you have to imagine the legs, ok, nothing in Rimworld has visible legs). So much for recruiting Hines...

Bugs: 6, Raiders: 2. This is getting ridiculous. Our colonists went back to bed, not a single shot fired.

Since we aren’t spending time on crops, construction has been proceeding pretty quickly. We’ve enlarged the work and common rooms, and we’re planning for future private bathrooms. The freezing midnight latrine will (eventually) be a thing of the past!

IDK man, putting up a massive monument that says “Lord So-and-So has a learning disability” seems really ableist. OTOH, +16 goodwill is nothing to sneeze at... but right now we need our building materials for our own base, not some baron’s vanity. Proposal: rejected.

So far, we’ve been lucky that disease hasn’t ravaged our colony (yet). This research is another long-term gambit, because we’ll need to grow and process neutro flowers or trade for neutroamine in order to make preventive drugs for common ailments.

Another cargo pod? Wow, gee, thanks Randy, we’ll treasure it! (spoiler: we didn’t even bother to haul it in)

Halfway through Decembary! Future private bathrooms have been built out, we now have a shooting range and martial arts practice area off to the right, and a new butchering station is being created. The hospital area has been slightly expanded and outfitted with sterile tiles, making it very clean indeed (speeds research and lowers chance of infection). The kitchen and butchery will also be given sterile flooring to prevent food poisoning, but these tiles are expensive and slow to make!

And Julian has a megasloth-fur ushanka.

[the-iron-orchid]

Rimworld: Arcana, Part 11: Bang Your Way To a Better Life

We’ve got plenty of corn and rice, but we’ve run out of meat entirely, that means no Fine Meals to keep people’s spirits up :c

...so Turel heads out to bring home the bacon (a bunch of wild boars moved in recently, and we all know they’re invasive!)

We have nothing for you, sadly. And seeing as it’s currently -2F outside, they’re probably not going to hang around for long...

“Dammit, Lucio, I’m a doctor, not a veterinarian!”

(Turel is busy hunting wild boar, so it falls to Julian to treat our asthmatic perv goat.)

Time to research Part 2 of our long-term preventive medicine plan. We may not be able to make enough to provide preventive meds to the whole colony, but we can at least try to keep our doctors healthy.

Real Talk: I very much want to control this part of the map. It has a lot of resources. The two main issues are the raider-slaying bugs in the caves, and the largeish open area to the north. For now, we’re going to open up a quicker route to this area just north of Lucio’s pen, because it’s a rich hunting area and Turel is spending many extra hours going back and forth to get our meals (deep snow will slow pawns down quite a bit).

Step 1: Build a small defensive area here before mining out a tunnel into this small cave (which connects with the area I want to control).

Step 2: Investigate the bugs. Since these bugs were spawned when the map was created, this nest is dormant (not making more bugs). I think the only reason they attack raiders is because the raiders start shit with them; they may leave us alone so long as we don’t fuck with them.

Not pictured: Tsedi bravely going in to snatch those 24 herbal Medicine away from the lair of the bugs! The Megaspiders chased him a bit, but they gave up very quickly (only a few tiles away from the mouth of the cave), and he got away easily. So they will attack if you get too close, but they’re far less aggressive than their counterparts in an Infestation event (when they spawn inside a deep-mountain base) or when infested ship chunks crash and they immediately start reproducing.

This means that if we tunnel into the caves from the southern end, we should be able to mine those resources without being attacked by giant bugs, but we can still enjoy watching idiot raiders get eaten by giant bugs. Win!

The secured tunnel is built! (I see you up in the right hand corner, you feckin Boomrat...)

Look, McFly, we’re just not set up to hold and feed two prisoners for a whole-ass quadrum, idk what you expect here...

Meanwhile, Heron and Julian have been banging their way to a better life.

Heron uses his nookie-fueled Inspiration to build a Masterwork end table, making his and Julian’s little love-nest that much more comfortable. Awww.

For his part, Julian remains focused on preventive medicine for the future.

The newest member of our colony, Holster, just adores Tsedi, but the feeling is not quite mutual lmao

Meanwhile, a bloody confrontation has taken place outside the perimeter between a faction hostile to us and a faction neutral to us.

Turel and Tsedi field-stabilize the wounded, while Jinana... eats their food 😂 Priorities ig

The hospital is full again, but if we can get these folks healed up and send them back to their faction, it will build a lot of goodwill. (With enough goodwill, other factions will even come help you against raids!)

...yeah, that’s crazy all right, what makes you guys think we have enough leather on-hand to do this? Gedoutta here!

[the-iron-orchid]

Rimworld: Arcana, Part 7: Errands of Mercy and A Surprise Hookup

That’s a weird thing to make as a Masterwork, but honestly? On-brand for Turel.

So here’s the deal: we know nothing about this guy, and he’s going to be bedbound for an indefinite period of time, consuming our food and requiring care. However, leaving him to die will definitely make our colonists unhappy, so...

Damn, Jinana 😂 Lift him gently in ur spindly lil arms

He’s not terrible, but he’s not wonderful either. We’ll have to keep him happy enough that he doesn’t just start lighting fires to relieve stress. This will require regular doses of medicinal blunts. (We may also be able to get psychite tea, booze, and other things from traders to keep him happy without getting him addicted.)

After a quadrum of Tsedi and Julian playing will-they-won’t-they, Heron snatches the doctor right out from under the assassin’s nose. Oops.

Turel made them a nice double bed!

...which they immediately put to good use, lmao

That masterwork chain shotgun is fuckin sweet, plus you get the reward up front. Our guys will take a mood hit from being out in the wet, and there’s a slight danger of lightning strikes damaging the base or even hitting pawns (very small). Get ready for some shit weather, guys...

Even as the promised weapon arrives via transport pod, we get this message - we should probably help out the guys who are not hostile to us.

However, by the time Tsedi makes his way to the scene, the skirmish is over. Our enemies are downed, and frankly not worth trying to save, imprison, and recruit while our resources are already limited. Sorry, guys.

Ooh, half a dead raccoon! :D

(In the early game, never pass up a partially-eaten animal that something else has killed - it’s free meat and leather! “Ooh, half a dead raccoon!” is our catchphrase for this, and often it is literal.)

Julian is on-task - once we get some more silver, we can make a cleaner clinic, butchering room, and kitchen!

We grew a lot of Herbal Medicine over the summer, we can spare some for these guys.

Aw, Heron and Julian are eating together! Also, Jinana has begun mending the clothing from our erstwhile raiders, and everyone has been choosing stylish hats to wear. Heron has claimed the chinchilla fur duster, and Jinana is wearing the foxfur jacket. We’ll need them; winters here get below freezing!

Uhoh - lightning struck the gate, and Lucio is free!

Turel quickly fixes the gate and puts paid to Lucio’s shenanigans.

Sadly, sometimes the half-a-dead-raccoon comes to you, by wandering into your defenses. Waste not, want not...

WHY do THINGS keep FALLING from the SKY

Turel goes out in the middle of the night to rescue this... arctic wolf.

Now, animals from transport crashes may not choose to join your colony, and if so, they can wreak havoc if they can’t easily leave the compound when they recover. So we set up a sheltered spot outside for the wolf to recover in...

And she immediately bonded with Turel, so now we have an arctic wolf. (Her new name is courtesy of @fullyfunctionalapprentice​ lol). Once she’s recovered, Turel will train her to follow him around, attack on command, rescue downed pawns, and eventually haul resources!

We do not have the resources to support 6 additional people for almost a whole quadrum - the growing season is over, foraging will be very limited, and even hunting will diminish over the winter. (Plus, there’s a chance that they will betray us.) Sorry, guys, but move on.

Raiders are a constant nuisance. As you can see, they send bigger parties over time.

This party consists of three people with maces and clubs. Not very scary tbh

Uh... where you goin? (This is the valley to the north of our base!)

...they have decided to cross the entire map, ignoring us completely, to throw down against the insect hive that lives to the east. This happens sometimes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the giant insects win, with few injuries and no fatalities.

Jinana: “See, they’re our friends!” :D

(no, Jinana, they are most definitely not friends)

And we end with Heron playing horseshoes by himself in the rain at midnight, while his boyfriend slumbers away in their bed. OK, Heron...