Hi Minimalists,
After the summer I'll be headed into my junior year of an American University. I've been a minimalist since my freshman or sophomore year of high school so I've been at this for a while. In my years of college so far I've lived in a dorm, an apartment, and at home on a gap semester so I can confidently give others advice. Whether you're starting out in minimalism or wanting to deepen your practice, this is for you. College is a great time to start minimalism because if you're like me, you're moving around a lot.
My University is a 3 hour drive from my house so luckily I was able to use a car to move in and out but I didn't have a car to use which turned out to help my minimalism as it resulted in smaller shopping trips. If I were flying in, it would be a different story and I would have to pack later but I had some room.
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**Clothing**

1. *Seasonal clothing:* My college town has all four seasons so layering was my friend. Summers and spring I wore pants and shorts with a tank top. I have one pair of denim shorts and pants because really, who needs more? They last many wears and a basic blue or black denim can go with anything. In the fall and winter, I layered the exact same outfits with a jacket. I have a few different jackets which I'm trying to pair down. I have a huge snow jacket which I hate having because it takes up so much space. I was about to get rid of it but we had the craziest winter this past January and February so I'm glad I kept it. Sometimes you don't want to keep things but it will serve its purpose. If it doesn't, get rid of it. When I get clothes, I like to get new clothes, I like for them to have multiple purposes but snow jackets are very specific, however, it's better to be comfortable. Especially if you're walking everywhere which I was doing.
2. *Underwear:* While I was at my apartment this past spring semester, I realized I never used all my underwear and socks in a week (I do laundry once a week). Since I've moved home for the summer, I put some of each away in a box and used what I had. If I needed more I'd grab some but I think I've figured out the perfect number which is different for everyone. I can't really comment on bras even tho I am a girl but I don't really wear them or if I do, it's a yoga bra and I'll wear it as my shirt.
3. *Shoes:* If you live somewhere snowy and have a pair of hiking shoes that are water-resistant, they work in snow. I was told they wouldn't work so I bought a pair of Timberlands and barely wore them and wasted $150 on them. Recently, I bought a pair of Chacos chelsea boots. I got the black color so I could wear them to work and they'd look more professional. However, black absorbs heat so my feet always get warm. Once these have run their time I'll get a brown color. I have one pair of tennis shoes that I only wear over summer when I work at summer camps. I'm not a fan of tennis shoes but if you go to the gym or run then have one pair and only get another once they are worn out. I have two pairs of hiking sandals which I can also wear with socks in the chillier weather but I'd like to pair them down to one.
4. *"Maybes":* You know these clothes, the ones you just cannot seem to donate but don't know why you're keeping onto them (or you do). What I've found is I'll get a bag and put my maybes in those and put them out of sight for a few weeks. If I don't miss them, I have my answer.
5. *"Maybes" pt. 2:* If you move home during the summers and/or winters, I highly suggest keeping some maybes at home. When you come back, you'll most likely be able to donate it all.
6. *Hangers:* Only bring with you how many hangers you currently need plus maybe one or two more if you want to be nice to yourself. Once you run out, you cannot buy any more clothes.
7. *1 in 2 out:* This has been my philosophy with clothes for quite some time now because clothes are the biggest struggle of mine when it comes to minimalism. Now, whenever I buy an item of clothing, it has to be able to replace *at least* two items I already have or be something I need but don't have yet (like work clothes).

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**Bedroom**

1. *Linen:* You only need one pair of sheets, I promise.
2. *Desk:* I work my best when my desk if clean so all I keep on there is a mason jar with a few pens, my laptop, and a fake plant (I don't like to move around a bunch with real plants and not every place I'm in has a window with a lot of sunlight). I take all my notes digitally so I don't have to worry about physical clutter. I do that with books/textbooks as well. Unless I *need* to get a physical copy, I always purchase it as an online book.

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**Bathroom**

1. *Towels:* One towel is all you need, I promise.
2. *Toiletries:* Scaling down your bathroom routine is a must. I haven't worn makeup since I've become a minimalist and it works for me and I enjoy it but if makeup is a must for you, really think about each step and if you can cut out any. Also, don't keep so many refills on hand, just go buy another when you need it, it really helps with clutter. A few things I have refills on hand. Like my deodorant comes in packs of two and my razor comes with multiple head replacements.
3. *Shower:* I've decided I'm going to get rid of my bath mat next semester. Why do I need one if I can just dry off in the tub/shower? Really think about what you *actually* need.
4. *Toothbrush:* This is something I've just decided to do. I have an electric toothbrush that I've used for years but I'm going to move back to a good old fashioned manual one. The replaceable toothbrush heads are like $15 a piece! Plus, it's bulkier and I always have to keep a normal one on hand when I take a trip.

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**Kitchen**
My roommate and I split the cupboards and drawers but I didn't use half of mine!

1. *Pots & pans:* Get a good cast iron pan and pot and you'll never need anything else (just be sure you season them right). Maybe get another saucepan if your recipes are more complex but scale down on the complex recipes! (See my next point)
2. *Recipes:* I love to cook but sometimes the recipe has 10 spices, 8 different veggies, and 10 different topping choices. I'm vegan so that makes some things easier but not much. You can edit recipes. It may take some trial and error but spice it to your liking. You're not going to taste a 1/4 tsp of cumin, I promise. Also, I don't like bell peppers so if a recipe has that, I get rid of it. Finding simpler recipes has really helped my kitchen stay minimal.
3. *Food:* This is something I'm still trying to work on. I didn't cook much in my dorm but this past semester I didn't have a meal plan and I had a kitchen. I was spending anywhere from $200-400 a month on groceries and unfortunately I left a lot of food to go to waste. MAKE A MEAL PLAN. I love notion and made a recipe book with my favorite recipes. This has helped immensely with food waste. Also, don't get that one super specific thing for one recipe that you're only going to make once. Either skip the recipe or find a substitute. I'll use this example which doesn't apply to me but it's a good example. I love tahini and use it in a lot of things. I can go through a jar of it in 2 months. Others however may never use it but one recipe calls for it. Use another nut butter instead or skip the recipe. Or find more to use it in instead of letting it sit in your fridge and just throwing it out when you move.
4. *Plates, utensils, etc.:* Do you really need more than 2 plates/bowls/cups? If you have guests, get compostable reusable plates or BYOP. I had 3 of everything but rarely used the 3rd so when I go back, I'm only taking 2 of everything. I wash my dishes as soon as I'm done (or as I go) so it hasn't been a problem for me. Same goes with knives. Do you really need a whole knife block? Just get 1 or 2 quality knives and you'll never need another again.
5. *Appliances:* Be careful when it comes to appliances because they take up a lot of space when moving. If you drink coffee a lot, get coffee appliances. For me, I love tea so I have a kettle to boil water. I recently got a high speed blender to use as a blender and a food processor and I've loved it. I also recently got an air fryer as a gift. I haven't used it yet but I'm also scared to start haha. I just need to do it once and then I'll be familiar with it. However, if I can use that to replace having to heat up the oven each time, I'll take it. Don't get a toaster oven. You can heat up your bread on a pan on the stove just perfectly and it saves space.
6. *Random shit:* We all love those fancy shaped bottles and the cool fridge organizers. I had a fancy bottle last semester. Didn't use it once so it is not coming back with me next semester. Those clear plastic fridge organizers are expensiveeee. Do you really need them? Minimalism isn't about having the best organization, it's about being mindful with your stuff. Maybe you find value in those organizers, go for it! But for me personally, they wouldn't add any value to me as I can already organize my fridge pretty well. However, I just bought one of those rotating organizers because the corner of one of my cabinets was getting crowded with spices and oils.

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**Cleaning**

1. Find a good multi-purpose cleaner and it will be a lifesaver!
2. Dryer balls are your best friend.
3. Target's brand Ever Spring has a concentrated laundry detergent and the bottle takes up almost no room and one squirt gets the job done. It's been a lifesaver.
4. Just get a broom. A vacuum takes up a lot of space and is heavy.

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**Living Room**

1. Ngl, I never touched my living room once. I spent no time there. My roommate had some things but if you're not going to hang out there much, don't keep anything in there.

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Hope I covered most things and it wasn't too confusing. If you have any other questions, I'd love to answer. If you want links to anything I mentioned please let me know!

I am a 21F in Texas and my car insurance is $387 a month. I had continuous insurance from 15 with progressive, but last thanksgiving when headed back to college from break a drunk guy slammed on his breaks on the interstate after it rained and I slid into him. I was ruled at fault because it’s Texas and I’m the back driver. After that my car was totaled by insurance and I had to wait to get a new car, so I canceled my insurance until I could save up and get one not knowing it would destroy my rate. That plus the wreck made me turning 21 nothing, my rate went up by almost $1000 in the 6 month period. I’ve gotten quotes from other bigger companies like State Farm etc. but everything else is even higher. Is there any recommended companies I should try?
I honestly don’t know what people who can’t afford to pay this much are supposed to do. My dad just died and I’m having to move across the country (to a big city so my rate will raise even more) and care for three siblings now and I literally can’t pay it. I’m desperately trying to find a way to lower my rate.

Previous Chapter: Link
My Never-ending Loop
Just a few days ago, I couldn't see the reason why it is necessary to forgive someone. I could go on most probably without having to go through that pain again, never needing to think about it, suppressing it like it never happened. However, here I am doubting myself if I did the right thing because obviously, I couldn't let go of what happened. Some things are not okay and those things never let go of you. I want you to imagine, just for a moment, simply not breathing, just because it hurts. Filling air in your lungs is the most hurtful thing happening to you right now. Nevertheless, you can't stop yourself from doing so, you need that sharp cold air in your lungs to go on, to live. Definitely, you can't forget breathing, so how can you forget something that hurt you so bad that you cry almost every night thinking about it? You tell yourself constantly that it doesn't matter, which it obviously does, but you still force your brain to let it go, danger signs blasting in your head, and deep down you know, you are just lying to yourself. Days get gloomier and gloomier, and you start eating less or sometimes more, you just want to fill that void. The crumbs of chocolates, chips, and the smell of ramen noodles, are so heavy that now they are nauseating but long before they were your sweet little guilty pleasures. Your health, your time, and even you, yourself become less prioritized because you are hurting yet there is no one to blame. No one is there to say, "Yes, it was my fault, I'm sorry.".
Everyone is living their best lives, laughing, and having fun, but of course not you. You are crying and screaming at the wrong condiment packet that came along with your fries(though it was for free and something that's not much worth your energy). Throwing objects left and right, tearing things apart, and sometimes even relationships apart. And once you have calmed down, I must say that it varies from person to person, but one thing is certain, you forgot, why you were so sad, what made you so angry, so pathetic, so desperate in the first place. And now you feel better, much better actually, so you clean your place. Take a nice, long shower, cook for yourself, do your work and you feel accomplished.
You start to feel better, you turn on your TV to check what's new (on Netflix), listen to music, and dance around your current beautiful house. And your life restarts again, but the shadows or the voices in your head linger, they warn you not to do this, They remind you, how this is your tiny customized loop, how you have already done this before, and the result as always doesn't end well. But of course, who would listen to them, you are doing better, achieving things at work. Right now, you are unstoppable!
Your depressing days turned out to be beautiful. Now you are easily stepping out of the house, go to the little cafés, enjoying the coffee; the cute, expensive yet very much aesthetically pleasing cakes. Viola, you are socializing with your friends, your family, and even online. You look at yourself in the mirror thinking, thinking, not bad! Yet, one day the voice in your head that you have kicked far away into the Inferno, is now back, much bigger, much more equipped, and is now back with the receipt.
"There is nothing to worry about it", you may say, "I have let it go.". You try to convince that voice. Yet your voice cracks and quivers, at the thought of it. You greet yourself in the morning, definitely trying to ignore the elephant in the room. "I am done. I no longer think about them. I know they didn't mean it.". I swear, I have tried to convince myself more than my fingers could count. On one hand, this voice wouldn't let you leave, and on the other, in reality, in the so-called 3D world, your work is getting heavier than you could handle. You want to quit. But of course, you have mouths to feed. Feeling helpless, you do what you always do. Cry! Snot out of your nostril, you look at yourself in the mirror and try to recall how long it has been since you last took a bath. Your head is splitting apart, you have no energy to cook, you order food and you vomit all over your toilet seat. The sound of water flushing away that disgusting, chewed food gave you self-realization. More like 300 million Volts of lightning struck directed at you, enough to burn you to a crisp. For how long can I ignore this? Your voice cord is sore and so you sit and think, hard and long. Do I need to live like this? Do I need to pretend everything is fine?
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
That's what I have learned about karma, so why was I still living the hard life while they were having fun partying.?I used to pity myself. No matter what I did, nothing ever changed. And soon I began a cycle, a loop of self-pity and misery. It wasn't a happy ending even after that self-realization, I stayed like that for a very long time. I was hurt by the same thing, got betrayed by the same people, and wept for the same misery. My life was miserable. And I was deeply sunk in my misery, I thought this quote is a stupid one. While I was going downhill, others were going uphill. And I didn't want that. I want to make it clear, it is not that, I didn't want to see them going upward, I no longer cared about it.
I was done going downwards, at this pace, I was sure to meet the devil, which I currently didn't want to. I am simply scared of horror. But what could I do? I felt so helpless. So, I forced my mind to shut up. I picked up a book, it was all dusty, I wanted to fling it across the room or throw it in the river. But I didn't, I cleared a little space on my bed. Sat down and forced myself to read. I completed that book. And that book made me realize something. One simple thing that had always been in front of my face. Some people never change.
As humans we always lean toward exoneration, in simple words, you are in a perfect scenario where the offender asks for forgiveness while repenting for their sins. However, that's least likely to be unless you don't know how the world works. Most of the time people don't even realize when and how they have hurt someone. To know what if you did offend someone, this needs strict which the majority of people lack. And people can't keep on walking around eggshells. In exoneration, the offender is fully aware of what he did and is ready for the consequences of his actions. Ready for the punishment that will follow, to forgive because they were guaranteed such action would not be repeated.
As humans, we commonly want such an ending. A happy one where we won't feel guilty about speaking up and finally we would be able to let things go on a happy note. Since the offender has taken full accountability, there is nothing more you seek. So, you forgive them. For me, this exoneration is nothing but a futile dream. It is an unachievable goal, ready to be met with failure. So, I gave up on it or you could say my dream took a different turn. And so my mind wanders, into another scenario, where I get a half-hearted thing that I am left with, nothing but disgust. Every cell in my body is screaming in anger. I would rather die than get that half-hearted apology. I do not want to end up in a situation that leads to forbearance. But the way I am being right naught be left with an apology with no repentance. And if that's the result I am left with, I knew I had a serious problem at hand. I needed peace in my mind. I could no longer let this incident take control over me. So, I searched and searched and it didn't take me long to find a situation similar to mine.
How to forgive when the offender is not depending, more so, they have no idea of what they have done? So I had to embrace something, much more difficult and foreign to me. I had to be the wiser one. I had to become brave, confident, and tough, to let it go. I couldn't be the cause of my destruction, yet those people did me dirty, but in the end, I was the one ruining my life, I was the one making pathetic choices and making a joke of myself. Circling an endless cycle, when I was already that was the way out. I had to be a better person for myself. And most definitely it was me who could release the stress in me. However one thing was clear, though,h I have changed, they have not. Yes, I was stuck in the loop of my created misery but so were they. I wouldn't confront what loop they are on because you need to confront your cycle and break it. To grow, to nourish, to be better. Looking at them, I wasn't sure if they realize what cycle they are on, however, it was no longer my responsibility and I needed to know that. I have learned my lesson and I was thankful that happened to me. While hurting myself all the way, I found myself.
"So, you are saying you forgive them?", you might be furious but let me explain. When you decide you are releasing that feeling it means, you are sure that your offender is most probably never gonna learn, never gonna grow up which will lead to them hurting you once again. You have already seen that and have been a victim of such action. There is no point in teaching them when they never asked to be taught in the first place. So, I did what was best for me. Now, I am at peace, I don't go hysterical and I bathe daily. Yes, it took time to come here but I am happy that I am on a forward journey of what was one time a nightmare. My never-ending loop.
"The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward."
-Steve Maraboli.
RoyalRoad Chapter: Link

My name is Canopy Hydrangea. I recover cursed artifacts, explore haunted places, and report back the information needed to the people I work for. The Company then arranged what has to be done to remove these blemishes from the world.
If it isn't possible, we make sure the evil of cursed artifacts and bizarre places doesn’t make it’s way to the general public.
But sometimes, it’s important to leak a report or two to the unsuspecting public. Makes for a good warning- and this particular file is one of many that must be known.
“Do you have clearance?” asked a young man, hat with a carefully embroidered VII obscuring his face. He held out a little notepad with tables for signatures labeled ‘sign-ins and security’. “We can’t have anyone here without proper clearance.”
I sighed and took the pen that was attached to the pad. “Of course I have clearance,” I said. “I’m the one supposed to be in charge of this damn operation.”
He looked at me in confusion. So did I. I was told by the Company’s board members this specific location was assigned to me. And yet, my team was clearly not the first ones there.
This wasn’t what we were promised. Not by a long stretch. “I was told Varaluz was in charge.” he pointed over to a bulkier man in camouflage gear, director agents of the Company around the dig site.
Varaluz. Of course he was here- he was always getting in people’s business. “Am I being subjected to an internal security probe?” I looked him in the eye. “Right now? Right here?”
The meek young man hesitated and backed away. “See, your previous assignment against the House of Lorreno has some of us in the Company…” he chose his words carefully, “doubting your status.”
This was no issue. I just wanted control of the dig site back in my hands- after all, I was the one sent to study it. And my team. “No problem.”
So let’s talk about the dig site. The mass grave that, as I was told by my historian Kyran, contained the corpses of over 200 skeletons, and counting. “254,” he mused, counting again. “And some aren’t human.”
I asked him about it. And then I saw the bones for myself.
They, at first, looked like the bones of children. But on closer inspection found them all to be distinctly serrated. Their skulls were a bit too flat and wide to truly be human, and what was more bizarre were the limbs.
Each non-human remain had eight limbs, all that seemed like the legs and feet of ordinary human body; obviously inhuman, and the way they were connected told me this wasn’t some post-mortem ritual that positioned the bodies like so after death.
No. This was the real deal- dozens of dead, non-human entities that perplexed and sent chills up my spine.
And the skulls. The damn skulls were like they were smiling, of all things. And instead of two eye sockets there were four.
I also noted the sharp pines of wood that impaled the skeletons. “What’s with that?” Even before asking the aura of something… powerful emanated from the bones.
My assistant, Rainie, had an answer. “We suspect they may not be fully dead,” she informed. “We’re doing our best not to er, dislodge the wood until we can get a priest to put them at rest.”
I knelt down near one of the many impaled creatures and observed it. Distinct markings were present. I took off a glove off and touched it, feeling the history within it.
Sparks of violence. War. Famine. An ember of something not entirely dark I could not place. It unnerved me. “How long until we can put them at rest.”
“Well, we haven’t figured out what religion this place aligns to,” she pointed out. This was true- if we invited the wrong priest to bless the place it could invoke the opposite of peaceful rest. “And you haven’t even seen the staircase.”
“The what?”
The mass grave was discovered by an oil company looking to drill new ground. When the reports of the unusual remains came in, a report was handed over to me and my team, and we were sent to eliminate the disturbance, remove all evidence of the bizarre and hand it back over to the oilmen.
The bodies were found in concentric trenches, squares. There were about five, each within another, and a sixth being uncovered by the dig team.
In the center of the squares was a small ruin, a large jutting cylinder with a door. Beyond this door was a spiral staircase of stone, seemingly cut in by the ancient builders of the grave site so many centuries ago.
Varaluz, the internal security inspector, awaited me there. “Canopy,” he greeted, extending a hand. He peered into the staircase, holding out strong, twisted rope. “We’ve got four assets who’ll be out just about-” a man, panicked, rope attached to his waist scrambled out, hyperventilating.
He was in standard prison garb. As usual- we often used death row prisoners to explore new, dangerous territory.
He started to ramble about a shape in the darkness, and something about pages and a book. “Sir,” asked a woman, placing the man under handcuffs. “What should we do with him?”
“Remove him,” Varaluz ordered.
She looked at both of us, puzzled. “Like, kill him?”
Varaluz shook his head. “Don’t be silly- we need to know what he saw down there- extract his memories, then have the handlers do what they please.”
Yuck.
Memory extraction was something I hated to see. A needle laced with symbols and science, injected into the center of the eye. It would then extract memories to be read by a rather interesting-looking book.
The prisoner would then develop amnesia for a while, but that was no issue. The prisoners we worked with for these excursions were often terrible, irredeemable people.
Varaluz and his team informed me of what they had discovered, just as three Company agents entered the depths, rope tied along their waists.
The staircase was seemingly endless, according to two other excursion teams they had sent into the depths.
The first team had only been equipped by a radio and led by an agent of the Company, but after an hour dropped from radio contact. After another hour, they should have returned- yet they had vanished into the depths.
A rescue operation was made- equipped with rope, Varaluz sent in a team of prisoners led by a more experienced agent into the depths.
Oddly enough, the initial agent leader stumbled back out, informing us the passage had shifted, and they had across a labyrinth underneath the entire dig site- some sort of temple.
Video footage revealed the place was a hellhole. There were signs of life, but twisted, impossible things- strange fungal matter and the bones of long dead creatures- and something else, still active.
This active entity, according to the survivor, seemed to work in tandem with the stairway, dislodging stairs, sending one prisoner falling into the abyss. Another was seemingly sucked into the walls of the place.
The last simply faded, and that was when the agent started to evacuate.
The rescue team came back, fully intact. They hadn’t encountered nay such temple, merely more of the same: staircases, illuminated by the light to be made of bone.
Subsequent testing informed us the bones were human.
“Okay, I want-” as soon as I was about to say I wanted to enter the staircase the line snapped. “Whoa!”
Varaluz held on, and two agents joined him. “It’s being- pulled!” he turned to me.
I retreated to a machine the rope was connected to and selected a button labeled ‘retract’. “This should-” it started to pull against whatever was on the other end- but it was straining, “work.”
The machine started to creak, and the bulky thing began to move against itself. “Security!” Varaluz ordered. “Get the hell over here- now!”
That’s when the line loosened and pulled back, and blood came flying from the abyss. Two bodies- no- a torso and a set of legs, rope still attached flew out, nearly splattering us with blood.
A man came running out, splattered in the blood of his friends. “There’s something down there-” he said it with such fear I started what lurked in the shadows, “it- it was like those bones!”
A growl emerged from deep within. My assistant, Rainie came up to me. “Sir, should we seal it up?” she gestured to security, already prepared to request explosives.
I thought about this for a moment. “Not yet, no,” I decided. “We don’t know if sealing it up will work.”
Whatever was inside- it was powerful. So I decided we needed a proper operation into the temple. With actual agents. “Rainie,” I began, “have the rest of the team meet me here- we’re going in.”
Reckless? Maybe. But if what was inside was a threat to humanity- it needed to be neutralized, captured, and sealed away. “By the way,” she started, “we’ve identified the ruin.”
My eyes lit up. “Can we get a priest?” The sooner we could remove the undead bones from the site the safer I’d feel.
“Already have one,” she hesitated. “But…”
“But?”
She sighed and pointed to the outskirts, where a rather fancy motorcycle had arrived. “It’s Quincy Kieni.”
Quincy Kieni was a rather eccentric figure in the cursed artifact black market. He was both an asset, working for us, telling us the details of when a major deal would go down- and an enemy.
His faith to Calayu, the Salamander King made him have so called ‘prophecies’ over when to help us and when to suddenly disappear off the grid.
I made a noise somewhere between a grunt and a sigh of annoyance. “Of course it’s him.” I watched as the man with black tinted glasses and fiery red hair waltz about the gravesite, raising his hands up and dancing.
Within the hour my team was ready.
I, Canopy Hydrangea would lead them in, coordinate our actions. My expertise in psychically sensing the bizarre would come in handy, if it need be, and the few spells I’d learned.
Then there was Rainie- my assistant, who had reviewed the tapes and studied all too many places similar to this. Of course, there was Kyran, my main security guy, and today, we would be joined by the rather annoying Quincy.
There were others, but I didn’t want to lead a large team.
So we entered the depths. Varaluz attached a rope to us, connecting it to the large bulky machine in case something attempted to pull us in. And then we were set, and so we began the journey into the depths of the pit.
“Canopy, we meet again!” Quincy cheered. “I didn’t know you were in the business of exploring new and exciting places.”
“And I thought you’d finally gotten yourself killed for good,” I chided. “After the whole Stet’Kai incident.”
He laughed maniacally at that, and the noise reverberated around the walls. “Were you demoted as a result of, who were they?” he thought. “Lorreno’s team?”
“None of your business,” Kyran cut in. He held up a hand. “I hear something.”
We all silenced ourselves- even the bothersome Quincy. There was a dull growl in the background, and the clicking of insects- no- “Automata,” Rainie identified. “Temples of the Salamander have automaton.”
Machines given life through ancient magic. Not a huge problem.
The next hour was rather boring, and we continued in silence, fearing disturbing one of the more dangerous security automata. Sure, machines weren’t as dangerous as any live creatures- but still a threat nonetheless.
“Hold it!” Quincy shouted. We all stopped. He stepped ahead and knelt down, inspecting the step in front of me. He spoke something I couldn’t understand, and symbols appeared, and we heard the clicking of gears. “It’s a classic pitfall trap.”
I remembered Varaluz’s prisoners. The story about the place working against them. “Who,” Rainie posited, “built this place?”
“It is a Temple of the Salamander,” I reminded. “But those bones up there don’t match anything we have on record.”
Quincy ordered another stop, and chanted- and a wall beside us faded away, revealing a hallway. “Now that’s the temple.”
I noted the images and statues, “And I think I know who built this place.”
Satyrs. The statues were satyrs, half-man half-goat creatures spotted throughout mythology and ancient times. We knew them, life many other of the ancient kinds, to be extinct.
Long dead. But the statues of the Satyrs here seemed different, more human than beast somehow. They lined the hall, facing away from us, bowing to a large statue of a salamander, an eternal flame still burning within its mouth.
“Look!” Kryan commanded, raising his gun. A machine, moving as if it were alive, appeared in the distance. “It looks just like those bones.”
No. It was made from the bones that had been dug up and the eight limbed thing came charging at us. Kyran fired, to no effect, before Quincy stepped out and clapped, uttering a single word.
The machinery grinded to a halt and collapsed; I was right- it had been made from the bones of the things above, strapped to gears and circuitry.
Whatever those things were, the worshippers below had clearly venerated them enough to create frankenstein-like beasts in their fashion. “Well that was… not at cool as I thought it’d be.” Kyran shrugged.
“And,” Rainie added, gesturing to the statue, “looks like that’s a sort of artifact we’ll want to secure.” In the mouth of the Salamander statue, was the flame- and as I studied it- I realized it was a book that was burning.
Quincy put the flames out and handed the warm pages to me. This was powerful alright. I reached into the ether and felt that it contained great animosity, malevolence- something insane.
“Now,” Quincy murmured, “I don’t want to alarm you, but-” the walls started to creak, and they began to slowly move downwards, threatening to crush us, “we are at risk of immediate death.”
We ran out of the temple and back on the stairs, which were now starting to shake, and crumble. Quincy quick-casted some spell, and we ran, tugging on the rope.
Varaluz, despite my opinions towards him, was skilled, effective, and he activated the machine pulling us in, just as the steps collapsed. The rope hung in midair, slowly drifting upwards.
By the end of the hour we were out. I gave Varaluz the details. The mass grave had completely been excavated, and all the skeletons sent to facility deep within the clutches of the Company.
More research would be done by a secondary team, but the immediate danger was neutralized. The automata, traps, and all had been disabled by Quincy, and the temple, according to a scan, had largely collapsed.
But there was something underneath it- a second temple that mirrored the concentric squares of the graves, ready to be excavated and revealed. And according to an initial scan- there were life signs inside.
That, I assume, was where the real treasures were hiding.
But that isn’t my business. The initial first contact was made, the fears within stabilized. My job there was done; another day was complete. The unexplained was eliminated, and I was ready to move on another excursion.
The world is filled with places like these. And I’m just one of many who work to keep these hidden away. We keep the public safe. It’s what we do.

I recently encountered unexpected behavior from the Blender bevel tool. I wonder if I'd stumbled on a bug? I'm using Blender version 3.5.0.
I am desiging a house number plate, to 3D print. I made holes in the number plate for screws and I want to make round, beveled countersinks for the screw heads. The problem is that the bevel tool creates elliptical beveled holes rather than round!
Here's how I created the plate with holes: I made the plate by creating a mesh plane, scaled it in the y-axis to create a rectangle and then extruding it in the z-axis, to add thickness. I made the holes by putting mesh cylinders though the plate and using the boolean difference function to create the holes. To bevel the edges of the holes, I selected the top ring of each hole and tried to belvel the hole with the bevel tool.
I tried an experiment to see if there was any case where the belvel tool would create a round beveled hole and I discovered it would, IF you make a hole in a plane with a square outline.
These steps produce a circular beveled hole: 1. create mesh plane (creates a square plane) 2. extrude the plane in the z-axis only, to create a plate, with thickness 3. create mesh cylinder 4. move the cylinder into the desired position in the plate 5. use the boolean tool to subtract the cylinder from the plate, which leaves a hole in the plate 6. switch to edit mode and select the vertices of the hole on only 1 face of the plate 7. use the bevel tool and create a bevel of the hole edge 8. the beveled edge is circular
These steps produce an elliptical beveled hole: 1. create mesh plane (creates a square plane) 2. scale the plane in the y-axis only to stretch it into a rectangle 3. extrude the plane in the z-axis only, to create a plate with thickness 4. create mesh cylinder 5. move the cylinder into the desired position in the plate 6. use the boolean tool to subtract the cylinder from the plate, which leaves a hole in the plate 7. switch to edit mode and select the vertices of the hole on only 1 face of the plate 8. use the bevel tool and create a bevel of the hole edge 9. the beveled edge is elliptical
​
beveled hole experiment
I'm curious if any Blender experts can figure out why Blender's bevel tool is making elliptical bevels in a rectangular plate. Is this a bug with the bevel tool?

Rank	Product Name	Description	Standout Feature	Price
1	Step2 Rain Showers Splash Pond Water Table	A spacious water table with a rainfall effect and multiple accessories for interactive play	Rainfall effect and maze-like spinners	$$$
2	Little Tikes Spiralin' Seas Waterpark Play Table	A fun water table with a spiral tower, ferris wheel, and water cup for engaging play	Spiral tower for dropping balls	$$
3	Step2 Spill & Splash Seaway Water Table	A two-tier water table with a waterfall feature and an umbrella for sun protection	Two-tier design with waterfall	$$$$
4	Little Tikes Fish 'n Splash Water Table	A fishing-themed water table with a fishing rod, water launcher, and various sea creatures	Fishing rod and water launcher	$$
5	Step2 Duck Dive Water Table	A compact water table with a diving board, water spinner, and squirting toys	Diving board for launching toys	$
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7	Step2 Summer Showers Splash Tower Water Table	A multi-level water table with a rainfall effect, spinning wheels, and a large water basin	Multi-level design with rainfall effect	$$$
8	Little Tikes Anchors Away Pirate Ship Water Table	A pirate-themed water table with a spinning water wheel, pump, and squirting shark	Pirate ship design with spinning water wheel	$$$
9	Step2 Lazy Maze River Run Water Table	A maze-themed water table with a tower, flipper, and spinner for interactive water play	Maze design with tower and flipper	$$$

I posted pics separately but imgur link is here: https://imgur.com/a/QJYSL7D. Am discovering I am not a reddit-whiz. Here is my trip report.
Quick summary: Basic route: went from HQ to China Hole, up Narrows Trail, right on Bear Mtn Road to County Line Rd., left on that then Right on Chaparral trail, then short right on Red Creek and left on Robison Creek, then Right down Orestimba Creek Road, Right at Hartman to Mississipi lake, South on Willow Ridge Road, right on willow ridge trail and back to HQ. I think total mileage about 45 miles with some detours and about 6,200 feet elevation gain. For Coe a lot of people, but still able to camp by myself every night. Weather was perfect: lows upper 40s highs b/w upper 60s and mid 70s. Bugs: minimal, bothered me about an hour total around sunset over 5 days, had a couple bites, didn’t use deet. Water – plentiful in China Hole area, available in Red Creek with good flow but I don’t know how long, not much in upper Robison creek but plenty lower down in creek, plentiful Orestimba creek. For me, Coe is usually too hot and dry after Memorial Day but I think this year may be an exception if anyone still wants to give it a shot while they wait for snow to melt in Sierra.
Extended description:
Thursday
From HQ to China Hole, up Narrows, past Miller field and Arnold Horse Camp, right on Bear Mountain Road, camped just above/North of Water Gulch right before Bear Mountain Road crosses East Fork Coyote to begin steep climb up Bear Mountain. I don’t know maybe about 8 or 9 miles all flat and downhill with of course some slower creek walking which I like.
There is a lot of flat space there. Water was flowing well and clear. Pro tips: don’t mash your finger with rock while putting in stakes. Don’t get both your hiking socks and camping socks wet. Not that I did that…I am much smarter than that.
Saw a couple people on way to China Hole, and two more b/w Los Cruzeros and Bear Mountain Road intersection. No one after that.
Friday
– Up up up Bear Mountain Road. Though steep I kinda liked it. Might have been worse going downhill ‘cause knees. Lots of what I think is mountain lion scat some disturbingly fresh. Lots and lots of pretty views. Didn’t see a soul. Just for kicks, took second right, first right after Bear Mopuntain peak Trail, on to first turn off for Bear Springs trail, thinking I’d see if I could find Spring. Gave up after about ¾ mile as seemed blocked by brush and didn’t want to poke around to find trail. I know people go frequently on bear spring to mississippi lake - maybe the second right at County Line road is better bear spring trail route - or maybe if I had poked around a bit I’d have found trail. I dunno.
- Then left on County Line road. You get to some barbed wire as is private property but look to your right and can easily step over and continue. Though feels weird/questionable to do this, I believe is completely legit as long as stay on trail to pass through the private property. Was feeling like a real explorer but then humbled by crossing path with high school group out for graduation trip. They were cheerful and was good to see them having fun.
-Then right on Chaparral Trail. I knew it’d be steep and was not a great trail but was worse than I expected, perhaps partly because was getting tired and it was getting hot. A real knee-buster in places. Often blocked by growth. Easy to lose trail (though I was tired and bombing down it so maybe if I was more careful would have been better). I lost it pretty badly at one point and got stuck doing some real bushwacking through shrubs to get back on it – scratching up my clothes and self a bit. Pro tip: don’t do this. Didn’t see anyone.
- At bottom of Chaparral trail, took right and found first shady spot by Red Creek. No one there. It is really pretty valley plain with a lot of flat spaces for camping. Very very nice. I was tired and it felt like mid-70s. I figured I was probably covered with ticks so stripped down put all my clothes save boxers in permeable bag (senchi bag) with rock in it to allow the creek to wash everything off. Then took washcloth bath in creek. Water flowing well though was not a ton. I don’t know maybe up to my ankles. While airdrying in sun in my boxers while creek washed my clothes, high school group came by again – awkward. Hung up my clothes to dry a bit (but not too much as wanted them a little moist to stay cool) and hung out enjoying the sun on my skin. Pro tip: if your skin hasn’t seen sun in I don’t know a year, uhm, don’t do this, you will get a burn. But again I would not do this. I am much smarter than that.
-High school group continued down red creek road and camped out of site/sound at intersection of Robison Creek trail. I walked around Red creek a bit but mostly just hung around then cowboy camped in bivy. Got a lot of dew and outer bag and borah bivy alarmingly wet but I was dry inside and worked out okay. Really pretty stars. Nice afternoon and evening.
- All in all was I don’t know maybe 8 or 10 miles for day
Saturday
-Went south on Red creek and in only .2 or so left on Robison Creek trail. High school group was camped there as well as another group of 3 or 4. Robison creek trail was somewhat encroached with grass but easy to follow and pretty and I was excited to be in Orestimba. After a couple miles or so you hit upper portions of Robison creek and trail follows creek northeast. At upper creek, not much water, I guess you could pull in an emergency but not really flowing and gnarly looking to me. Followed creek trail and as you went down flow got good. Lots of crossings. At intersection of Pinto creek is pretty field with lots of flat spots for camping. Would be nice to camp there one day. Saw party of 3 or 4 that had camped at beginning of Robison trail.

• Around intersection of Orestimba Creek Road and Robison Creek and trail, found a secluded portion of creek and took another bath and clothes washing. This time happily no high school group sauntered by while I was in boxers.
• Then took right on Orestimba Creek Road. About 2 miles to Rooster Comb Trail. Didn’t see anyone. It was okay - pretty but not especially so.
• Took Rooster Comb Trail. I think because I was getting tired and I was mentally disrespecting it because I had taken it before, it seemed eternal, and, being an idiot, I managed to lose the trail a bit which slowed me down. Though it has grass encroaching a lot, it is pretty, and if you pay better attention than I did I think you will not have trouble following.
• At bottom of Rooster Comb trail, stopped and refilled/drank water. Saw a big snake - 3 or 4 feet. Think it was a gopher snake as didn’t see rattle and head didn’t look super triangular but am not sure. This part of Orestimba Creek Road is a big plain, and there was a lot of clear flowing water. I have never seen it with so much water. It gave me a chuckle as I walked south on this part of Orestimba Creek Road down this wide valley on Saturday memorial day weekend and looked all around and didn’t see a single other solitary soul. But the high school group was about a mile further down Paradise Flat. Again though it was fun to see them having fun.
• I continued past Paradise flat, past intersection with Long Ridge Road, until got to intersection where if you go left you go to Mustang Pond. I took right and waded up Red Creek and quickly took first left at fork in about .2 mile where if you follow creek and creek walk push through some brush there are some nice flat spots about I don’t know .4 mile in. No one there. A little buggy and flow was disappointing but still water was okay. Had a real nice quiet evening. This time draped my poncho tarp over my bivy in case a lot of dew again. Didn’t make the slightest bit of difference. Outside of quilt still alarmingly wet but again comfortable/dry on inside.
• Not sure how far all this was maybe 9 to 12 miles.

Sunday

• Followed creek south to where it intersects with Orestimba Creek Road. Followed road south and took right on Hartman trail. It is very very steep but was easy to follow and quite pretty. I really like it though if going the other direction could be hard on knees. Saw 3 or 4 people so it seems at least on Memorial day weekend gets a lot of use.
• Stopped for lengthy hangout at Mississippi Lake where I saw two other parties. Dried out quilt. Not a lot of places with good easy water access. Lake is big and pretty but a lot of stuff in water – pre-strained with bandana over intake and it left bright green circle. If you are arriving to it tired, be prepared to walk another mile or so to find a spot. I’m more used to drinking from creeks and Sierra lakes; I guess this is just normal for non-alpine lakes. Thought about staying as this was where I told the rangers I would stay and looked like might rain, but it was only about 2:00 and I had not been far so decided to take my chances with finding a spot later on.
• So, went south on Willow Ridge. Didn’t see anyone on it. I liked it lots of pretty views. But lots of steep ups and downs and was much harder and more tiring than I expected. Threatened to rain the whole time but other than some sprinkles never did.
• Took right on Willow Ridge Trail. As usual, slightly overgrown/narrow in places, need to watch out for poison oak, steep, but okay. Saw 2 fellas coming up, also an e-bike rider flying up as if by magic. Also some beautiful wild turkeys.
• As came down Willow Ridge Trail toward bottom could see the eastern most campsite at Los Cruzeros (which is my favorite place to camp around there). Was thinking who knows maybe no one will be there. But no – four tents! I didn’t think even three would fit. Also a lot of people at other Los Cruzeros sites. Starting to think my “plan” (or rather vain hope) of “just finding some spot” on a holiday weekend close to the trailhead may have been ill-advised. Anyway, took a right thinking I’ll camp at Miller field. One party camped there. Started to camp near them as I was getting tired but I hate sharing camping so went a bit further and found a small mostly flat spot by myself with a really nice view up the valley a little further up just past around corner from Miller Field. Set up camp around 5 and happily didn’t see anyone all evening. Really pretty nice evening with creek babbling nearby.
• Not sure of mileage for this day but maybe 9 or 10 miles.

Monday

• Got up and went down the creek through the narrows took right at China Hole trail and quickly hoofed it back up to HQ and van. As usual, very pretty. Saw 2 or 3 pairs or groups of people on way back. Maybe 7 or 8 miles or so from where I had camped.

​

Ben had never thought that he would ever be a cat dad, not since he saw his own father run over his cat when he was only five. But yesterday, history almost repeated itself when he almost ran over two stray kittens while driving himself home from the graduation ceremony.
It had happened only a few hours ago - despite the fact that in an attempt to impress his dad, who was in the passenger seat, he had tried to be extra precise while backing out of his parking spot, he missed a little something in his way.
However, before the disaster could happen, a shrill scream made him slam the brakes.
"STOP! You'll run over them, STOP!"
Shira?
He jumped out the car and ran to the back, to find Shira looking slightly wary of a cardboard box near one of his back wheels. Inside the box were two kittens.
"BEN!" she shrieked on seeing him, her arms flailing in an almost comical way, "You almost killed them!"
Ben picked up the box, and noticed that there was a small slip of paper inside it.
"You should be more mindful of how you treat animals, Ben! We're supposed to share the planet with them, not-"
"Here, hold it for a moment" he interrupted, holding out the box for her to take.
She did not comply. Instead, she scooted away with a scared look on her face.
It took every last ounce of resilience inside Ben to not roll his eyes. Here she was, lecturing him about being 'mindful' with animals, when she was too disgusted to hold a box with two tiny, malnourished sleeping kittens.
Balancing the box in one hand, he pulled out the slip of paper and opened it.
"Take care of them, please" it read.
Take care of them. Hm. Someone left them here to be found.
After a moment of pondering, he made his decision.
"I'll take them to a shelter." he told Shira, opening the car door to put the two kittens inside.
"Wait!" Shira exclaimed, pulling out her phone and positioning herself as if to take a selfie.
"Shira, I'm really not in the mood to-" Ben began protesting, but the sound her phone made told him she had refused to listen to him. She skipped away, typing what he was sure was a story about how she saved two innocent kittens.
Her followers will like that, for sure.
Still, I'm rescuing two kittens from certain death. That's a good deed.
His good deed, however, remained unfinished, because the shelter did not have any space for cats and could not take in the two kittens. Ben was forced to take the kittens home, with the reassurance that his dad would find a place for them somewhere else.
And now here he was, having cleaned and fed them with Patty, trying to figure out what variety they were while shovelling spahgetti into his mouth.
"Oh, Ben! My sweet boy has graduated!" a saccharine voice suddenly spoke.
His mother.
Vivian Gross, unlike his dad, had chosen to be absent from his graduation ceremony, where he and Devi had jointly recieved the title of valedictorian. His dad had hugged him tightly and exclaimed how proud he was of his son with tears in his eyes. Ben knew he would remember that moment and smile till the day he died, he would be forever grateful for it, but it didn't quite erase the truth - he had expected his mother to show up. This was not a PTA meeting, not a debate tournament, not a club presentation - he has graduated high school. This was important. Today, for one day, he was important.
Apparently not important enough for his mother to abandon her regenerative healing spa appointment.
He did not want to admit it, but a sinking weight had appeared in his chest when his dad had informed him that his mom wasn't coming at all, and it had only dulled slightly since then. On hearing her voice, the weight re-appeared with full force. She pulled out a chair and sat beside him at the dinner table.
"No phone! Be respectful when your mother wants to talk to you, alright?"
Ben immediately put his phone down.
"So, have you thought about college, honey? Where would you like to go?"
Ben tried his best to not let the sheer disbelief show on his face. After all, 3he should have seen this coming.
"Uh, yeah, I - I applied to Columbia. The acceptance letter arrived two months ago. I got in. I'm pretty sure I told both you and dad?"
"You did? Oh, I must have forgotten! Typical me, forgetting things all the time."
It isn't normal to forget what ivy league your son got int- no, no Ben, don't be ungrateful. Don't say anything.
Well, I'm not being ungrateful here. She should've known this.
Before Ben could decide whether or not to convey his true feelings on the matter, Vivian cut the conversation short by pulling her phone out of her purse and beginning to scroll through it. Whether she ignored or didn't hear his scoff, he did not know.
After some time, she spoke up again.
"Oh, you and your girlfriend rescued kittens today? That's so nice!"
"My girlfriend?"
"Shira! She's your girlfriend, isn't she? I'm one of her followers! Very sweet girl, understands the importance of self-care very well."
He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out for a bit.
"Mum" he began, drawing a deep breath and trying to control the quiver in his voice "Shira and I broke up two years ago, in sophomore year."
You'd know that if you knew anything.
"Huh? Oh! So you haven't had a girlfriend since?"
"No." he mumbled back, realising it wasn't worth it to explain anything to her. If his mom didn't care enough to know everything that had happened in his life in two years, then he didn't care enough to tell her either.
Ben had always thought the fault was in him. After all, he was richer than most kids in his class, he knew that - he had everything. And yet he felt unhappy. He felt unhappy despite having everything, hence he must be ungrateful.
But he had come to understand he was anything but ungrateful. His dad was the one who was always busy, but he had tried - he had become a better parent. He had been there for Ben. He had showed up.
His mother had chosen not to, and it certainly wasn't his fault. Mothers didn't behave like that - he had met Nalini Vishwakumar. He had to fight the urge to yell some sense into Devi every time she said she hated her mom.
She's ungrateful. I'm not.
This realisation had made him colder towards his mother. He realised it, but was even more hurt by the fact that she didn't notice this at all.
"Well, what did you end up doing with the kittens anyways?"
"The shelter didn't have space for them, so I brought them home. They're in my bedroom. I'll keep them until Dad finds a spot for them." he said.
The silence that followed made him look up from his plate, to find his mother staring back at him with disgust.
"You let stray animals into my house?"
"Stray - what? But you just said it was a nice thing to rescue them!"
"It is! For somebody else! If you wanted a cat we could get you whichever you liked from a breeder!"
"I don't want them! They had been left in the parking lot! They would've died there!"
"They could be diseased, you know."
"They're not. I had them checked and vaccinated at the shelter. There's a veterinary clinic right beside it."
"Still, Ben, get rid of them right away. There will be no random abandoned strays in my house."
Bold words, calling it your house, when you're never in it yourself.
She left the dining room in a huff, mumbling exasperatedly to herself.
Left alone, Ben made a decision. Sure, it was driven by hurt and anger, but he would do it anyways. She hadn't come to his graduation, had she? She hadn't listened to him. Why should he listen to her?
For the first time in his life, Ben Gross was going to disobey his parents. He was going to keep those damn cats.
----------------------------------
Ben woke up the next morning to the sounds of two kittens rolling around and yawning in a box, and realised he was a bit conflicted - taking care of a whole live animal was no joke, especially since he couldn't ask for help from Patty and his dad.
Hiding them from mom isn't really a problem.
The thought of his mother brought back some of the rage he had felt the night before.
He was keeping those kittens, for sure, but for now, he didn't know where to start.
After an hour of research, Ben had a list and a day full of errands to run.
------------------------------------
Why are there so many litter box varieties in this world?
Ben had never known such confusion in his entire life. He was the class valedictorian, had won multiple awards and first place prizes, had gotten into a freaking ivy league, and yet had never faced something so difficult.
In front of him were five tub-like containers - each of a different colour, shape and size. One of them had a transparent lid, another one had a coloured lid, one of them had all these little knobs and buttons on the side, another one had a tag that said 'CAUTION : Be careful of electric wires'
He had angrily told the salesman to leave him alone after the idiot had attempted to sell him seeds for a parakeet, and now he had no one to ask for help.
Or maybe not.
He whipped out his phone and dialled a number.
-----------------------
Ben was regretting his choice.
Paxton had been standing beside him for the past five minutes, brow furrowed and completely silent.
Ben had suddenly realised that he did, indeed, have friends, friends he could ask for help. Only, his friend seemed even more lost and confused than he was.
"I- Wait, does that one say be careful of wires? I thought litter boxes didn't need electricity!"
"So did I! That's why I called you for help!"
"Me? What would I know about this? I've never had a pet!"
"But then why did you agree to help me?"
"Dude, I thought the box was too heavy for you to carry!"
"What's too heavy to carry?"
Trent had showed up out of nowhere, but Ben was somewhat used to him appearing out of thin air.
"Nothing. We can't figure out what to do here, which one of these litter boxes should I buy?
Trent looked at him with confusion. "Bro, you know these are for, like, cats, right? You can't use them."
Ben closed his eyes while Paxton held in a laugh.
"Yes, Trent, I know. I have two kittens at home. This is for them."
"Oh!" Trent said, rolling up his sleeves "Well, none of this fancy shit. What you need is a smart, durable, and simple solution" Spinning around, he called out - "Yo, does anyone here know where the Paw-fect range is?"
A girl in an apron appeared in the aisle, gesturing at them to follow her. She lead them to a different part of the store - a section that seemed entirely dedicated to the company Paw-fect.
An hour later, they were walking out to Ben's car with three large shopping bags.
"Dude, how do you know all this stuff? I mean, you basically told us what varieties of cats there are based on hair length. Where did you find that out?" Paxton asked Trent, not being able to place when precisely Trent had become an expert on cats.
"I spend a lot of time watching commercials on youtube, bro. I know exactly how to look after bunnies and dogs too."
Ben smiled to himself, getting inside the car. He rolled down the window and bid his friends goodbye before driving off towards home.
-------------------------------
A month had passed since that fateful day when he discovered his two beloved pets in that parking lot. Now, a month into the summer, he felt he had become somewhat of an expert cat dad. Well, enough of an expert to be worthy of a 'Best Cat Dad in the World' mug, the purchase and use of which had earned him some inquisitve glances from his father, but no questions.
He had hidden the kittens away inside his room, making sure to keep it locked at all times.
So far he was managing spectacularly. He had told Patty that he would clean his own room from now on, in preparation for college, and she had not discovered the kittens yet. To his dad he had said that the same shelter they had visited on graduation day had found an empty spot and accepted them.
He had developed a routine - everyday when Patty went out for grocery shopping, he would empty the litter boxes, fill up water and cat feed in the dispensers and brush their fur. He had installed a lock on his door, and made sure to leave it locked whenever he went out.
So far, so good. Nobody knew - not his dad, not Patty, and definitely not his mom, who had only been in the house for two days in the entire span.
The doorbell rang, telling him that Paxton and Trent had arrived to meet the cats.
"Oh, welcome! Ben is upstairs!" he heard Patty tell them.
Footsteps got louder and louder till Trent finally burst through his door.
"Where are they? Where are my nieces?"
"Trent, dude, not so loud man!" Ben warned, but he couldn't stop the smile from coming onto his face.
When he had found them, the two kittens had been on the verge of death. Thin and sickly, with dull fur, they barely had any energy at all, and would stay lying around and yawning all day long. Now, Ben had nursed them back to health, and they were happily climbing up their scratching post.
The only complaint he had was how aloof they stayed all the time. They made absolutely no efforts to return his affection and made no effort to get close to him, and bolted any time he tried to pet them.
He would call them ungrateful, but they weren't humans after all. Perhaps this was just how cats behaved.
"So, what are their names?"
Ben looked at Paxton for a moment before realising - he hadn't named them yet.
"You haven't thought of names yet, have you?"
"Uh, no."
"We'll help."
They both sat down on his bed and began gazing at the cats carefully.
This went on for some time. Just before Ben was about to interrupt, Trent finally spoke up.
"The white one is Taylor and the ginger one is Sadie."
On recieving confused looks, he explained further "She reminds me of Taylor Swift and she reminds me of Sadie Sink. Name your kids after great people and they shall become great themselves."
Before Ben could say anything in reply, the cats noticed that they had visitors in the room and bounded towards Trent. Jumping onto him, they began licking his face.
"Hey! They like the names!"
"Well," Ben said, smiling "Taylor and Sadie it is."
The very next morning they had little silver collars with Taylor and Sadie engraved on them, hanging around their necks.
--------------------------------------
Ben stood as if ready to tackle, glaring at the white kitten. Taylor glared back - no one would make her take a bath if she did not want to take a bath.
A moment more of glaring, and Ben jumped onto her. Taylor let out a yowl and shot off towards the bed.
"Come back here, you little rascal! Don't get my bed all muddy!"
But Taylor refused to listen. Jumping on the bed, she left her muddy footprints all over the white sheets.
Ben had accidently left the window cracked open the previous day, and the more mischiveous one of his cats had taken the opportunity to escape out into the rain-filled muddy backyard. Ben had been trying to get her to take a bath in his tub ever since, but getting a cat near water was proving to be more difficult than imagined.
"You were fine with soaking around in the rain yesterday - what's the problem with my tub? It's still water!" he exclaimed as she attempted to run away from between his legs.
She was not succesful, however, for in that second Ben bent over and caught her.
She growled again as he held up her little kicking and squirming frame in victory.
That very moment, the door opened, revealing Patty on the other side.
Ben gulped - he had forgotten to lock the door.
"I can explain-" he began, but he was cut short.
"Oh little prince, did you really think you could keep a cat in this house for two whole months without telling me? Who do you think kept them clean this whole time? Come one, hand them over, I will give them both a bath."
Shocked, Ben handed Taylor over to her.
"Does-does Dad know?"
"Of course! He really liked your 'Best Cat Dad Ever' mug."
As Patty took the kittens away, Ben smiled to himself. So his dad did know him well enough to know his secrets after all.
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The news had put a damper in an otherwise splendid morning.
Ben had grown out of wanting his mother to return home. Now, he didn't feel anything but frustration when she was around, didn't wish for anything but for her to leave. It was better when she was away.
But that morning Patty had told him that she would be returning home for a whole week.
Way to ruin a boy's day.
He was shuffling about his room, reluctantly trying to find his jacket so he could go out and buy something nice for his mother.
Ever since the reveal that both Patty and his father were well aware of his pets, Ben had let them run free in the house. The very first day the two had run across the hall while he was they were eating breakfast, and his father had simply smiled in response.
Now he headed downstairs, calling out to them, but neither of them appeared.
Shrugging it off, he left for the grocery store. A box of chocolates would do nicely, he thought.
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Ben returned home to chaos.
His mother was apprently screaming at someone in the living room.
As he got closer, he could make out the words more clearly.
"How could you let those...those creatures stay in our house Howard? He picked them off the street!"
Of course, the very first thing she did after returning home was berating his pets. Anger bubbled up inside him, but he pushed it back down and entered the room smiling. His father was sitting on the couch, massaging his temples, while Vivian stood in front of him.
"Mom, you're back! I got you chocolates." he said, trying his best to fake happiness, holding out the box.
His mom didn't take it, and instead crossed her arms and glared at him.
"Ben, I told you to get rid of those cats."
"You did."
"But you didn't listen to me! They were in my house! I went to the fridge to get myself water and I found them rolling around on the kitchen floor!"
Ben paused for a moment.
"I wanted to keep them."
"I don't care! I told you to get rid of them! You have to listen to me, I AM YOUR MOTHER!"
Well, it's not like you ever behave like a mother.
"What did you just say?"
Did I say that out loud?
"What did you just say, you ungrateful brat?"
That was what did it. Something inside Ben's chest shattered into pieces. His eyes filled up with tears as he stared straight at his mother, having waited far too long to say what he needed to be said.
"I SAID, you never behave like a mother! You didn't show up to your only son's graduation ceremony, you didn't know that I got admitted into a ivy league, hell , you didn't even know who my girlfriend was! THAT IS NOT HOW MOTHERS BEHAVE! If only you actually had time left for me after all your retreats and spas and treatments, maybe you would realise you know nothing about me!"
Ben did not wait to find out her reaction. He did not turn around to face his dad who was calling his name. He did not look at Patty. He simply bolted up the stairs to his own room.
Locking the door, he jumped onto his bed with shoes still on, and buried himself under the covers. Trying his best to not let the tears fall, he tried to call his cats.
"Taylor? Sadie? Are you there? Taylor?"
Not one peep. They weren't here either.
For the first time in a long time, Ben felt absolutely alone. He had his dad, he had his friends, but he had never had a mom. She was right there, down the stairs, the woman who had given birth to him, but he had never had a mom. And for whatever reason, that was enough to make him feel the way he did.
He lay quietly for some time, not letting a single tear or a single sound escape. He refused to cry.
Suddenly, he felt something weighing down the bed beside him.
Taylor and Sadie both made their way underneath the blanket, finally lying down right beside Ben.
He turned to his side and tried to pat Taylor's fur. He gently touched her with his hand, afraid that she would run away any moment.
But she didn't. Instead, she let out a content purr and curled up into an even smaller ball of fur.
They were here. They were here with him.
He could not hold back the tears any more. But even through the sobs, he began to smile.
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"Take good care of them Patty!" Ben called to his housekeeper as he hugged both of his cats one last time.
"I'll be back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, alright?"
He finally got up to leave when Patty began hounding him about being late to the airport.
He got into the passenger seat beside his dad.
His mom hadn't spoken to him since his outburst that day. He had tried to get a hold of her, but had always come out empty handed.
Still, having let all of it out had left him feeling lighter than ever. This time, he noticed, he didn't really care about his mother's absence.
"I left all the instructions for food and water on a checklist on my desk. Vet visits every month, and -"
"Ben, relax, we got this. You're going to college, be excited."
Ben smiled and looked out the window one last time as the car started, at the two little fur balls that he had come across by accident, who had ended up claiming rather large pieces of his heart.
What's more, they had ended up healing large parts of it as well.
"Yeah, I'm so excited." he said, looking at the road ahead.
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Author's Note : I am so sorry for being SO LATE, but I have an excuse - I kept deleting and re-writing over and over again because this is the first time I'm showing something I've written to someone else. I'll be doing the other two prompts over the next two days as well.
Well, this ended up being sappier than I had thought earlier! Anyways, I always appreciate constructive criticism, but please be kind.
Thank you for reading!
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In early may 2023 I sat in church with my family. The preacher Approached his podium looking war torn sad, and with a worried look on his face. He raised his hands and said. "I've had dreams of god speaking to me. Hes telling me so much. It's almost incomprehensible to me his words they burn my ears as if a red hot iron is being forced into them. What I can gather from him is that the end times are close, and the seven trumpets shall call it forth. Now my children As your preacher, my intention are to deliver a sermon that not only explains the significance of the seven trumpets being sounded but also encourages individuals to reflect on their own lives and prepare themselves for the end of the world.
The seven trumpets are significant in the book of Revelation as they represent the final warning of God's judgment on the earth. The first four trumpets describe catastrophic events that will result in widespread destruction and devastation. The fifth trumpet describes a swarm of locusts that will torment those who have not been sealed by God. The sixth trumpet describes an army of 200 million that will bring destruction upon the earth, and the seventh trumpet announces the final judgment of God.
The sounding of these trumpets serves as a warning to all of us that the end of the world is near, and we must prepare ourselves accordingly. As we read in the book of Revelation, the effects of these trumpets will be catastrophic, and those who have not prepared themselves will face a terrible fate.
Therefore, we must examine our own lives and make sure that we are prepared for the end of the world. We must ensure that our hearts and minds are focused on God and that we are living our lives according to His will. We must repent of our sins and ask for God's forgiveness, so that we may be sealed by Him and protected from the judgments that are to come.
In conclusion, the sounding of the seven trumpets serves as a warning to us all that the end of the world is near, and we must prepare ourselves accordingly. We must make sure that our hearts and minds are focused on God, and we must repent of our sins and ask for His forgiveness. Let us heed this warning and prepare ourselves for the return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."
Finishing up he smiled at us all as he pulled a pistol from his robe putting it in his mouth squeezing the trigger and blowing the back of his head apart. Painting the statue of jesus christ behind him with a grotesque mosaic brain matter, skull fragments and so much blood. After the cops were called his building in the church were searched. The two nuns that accompanied him hanging and they're chambers and bleed dry. In his quarters They found the he used the blood and painted on his walls repeatedly. The seventh trumpets shall sound they shall sound. This was painted and cover the entirety of his room. After this was done the church was closed and we never went back.
Then it happened The two witnesses show on june 7th 2023, in an attempt to save humanity, they spread the gospel of God explaining to all those who were willing to listen, but most turned a blind Eye with this. The two witnesses then had no choice, but too have the first of seven trumpets sound. The first Trumpet sounds with the echo across the world. More of a vibration than a noise many people had not known it went off. After it had stopped Hail began to fall from the sky with a drastic change. The Hail went from solid small pieces of ice to pieces of Red hot glass as it hit the ground it burnt everything in touched. Within two weeks it spread across the world. Because of this most of the world's vegetation Burnt to the ground, leaving nothing but melted glass and ash across the lands. With this a three hundred day war breaks out across the world. Nations began to fight for what food was left in the world. As april approached the war ended with no victor. With hundreds of thousands dead the world went into mourning. Realizing that the war caused nothing but harm to the world. Bringing the sadness and pain to all those that had to be involved. Countless families torn apart so many wounded so many dead. Children without fathers or Mother's, wife's mourning Their husbands. mothers screaming and crying over the lose of their children. The world fell silent as it realized that if they had listened Maybe none of this would have happened. None of that mattered now. Now there was too much pain, too much anger, and too much hate. The world blamed god for all this tragedy that had happened to them as a whole. They cursed it's name. Those who had faith in God, Started to doubt they felt as though God itself had left them. How could something so powerful, So all-knowing do this to them. It wasn't fair, was God acting out like a child? How could God be all-powerful and be jealous that not every single being on the Earth showed it Love and loyalty. what kind of power hungry thing Was God? if this is what god was They didn't want to believe they didn't want to follow. They wanted to forget they wanted to abandon it. Seeing this the witnesses called out to the world. Trying the best they could to get everyone to understand why God was doing what it was doing. This caused more problems than good. People started burning churches to spite god. No longer were churches safe no longer could families go and feel safe and at peace. Now churches were taboo and known to be a place of death.
Not having convinced the world the witnesses called forth the second trumpet to sound. The sound of the second trumpet was unlike anything humanity had heard. To most that could comprehend the sound described it as if thunder was crying out in pain. On the last day of April the sky looked as though it was being torn open by the sound of the trumpet. Stopping abruptly people from all over the world could see that the sky had in fact had been torn open like a wound, and from that wound spilled an asteroid that resembled a blood clot. The asteroid was said to be the size of mount everest. Slowly it fell towards the earth. The closer it came to earth the more people felt a sense of dread and sorrow. Knowing that once it hit all would be turned to ash. People stood in shock as the mountain of an asteroid split in to smaller pieces and falling to the world's oceans. Hitting the water with such forces tsunamis to accrue across the plant killing thousands. Over the next few day the pieces decayed into the waters turning them into a viscera soup, killing roughly a third of all sea life. People started smelling the rot that came from the now think blood like ocean waters. Noticing the animals dying out and rotting giving the bloody ocean a acid like state causing those who lived on the waters to die slowly and painful. Soon people left the oceanside for they no longer could fish for food to survive.
In less than a year the world's oceans became a gelatinous mass of blood and gore. Spreading sickness and suffering to most if not all of the world's population the sickness only caused pain and discomfort but never death.
By July 2026 the Temples that once held weekly services to worship and praise God, were now completely abandoned and avoided by all that still lived. Knowing that their voices would fall to deaf ears the witnesses sound led the third trumpet. The sounds a weeping was heard throughout the disease ridden word. Knowing that a new plague approached the weak and trembling people hid the best they could. A flash of green light flooded the sky as a second asteroid came for the heavens. This one devolved in the air turning to light rain. Only hitting the lakes ponds and every other body of water. Seeing that nothing had changed the slowly dwindling population went back to what lives they could live. Unfortunately over the next year many died of was thought to be from dehydration no matter how much water they'd consume. Looking back the people that were left realized that all the waters had been poisoned. Those who survived learned what was safe to drink and what caused a slow labored death. The ones who died suffered incredible pain as their insides turned to a mess of rot and decay. Slowly they'd rot throwing up their literal guts and organs until nothing was left. At the end of the year only a quarter of the earth's population was left. Roaming what was left of the war torn lands searching for some sense of peace only to find rage pain and death at every corner of the world. Then the witnesses sounded the forth trumpet it was a quiet dull sound the next few weeks. The skies began losing light as if the sun was dying. The night sky was now a void of darkness with no stars in sight and a fading moon. Slowly darkness was all the people knew. Christmas came that year some people tried to show they had faith once again. Setting up small groups to share the holiday spirit most were meet with hatred but some were welcomed with loving arms. With their all seeing eyes the witnesses observed with hope that the world was going to change for the betterment of all. Then the new year started with a major power claiming that they held the right to command over what was left in the world for they had more of a population and those who disagreed would be delt with a swift and painful experience. This well, this caused so much to happen and none of it was good. People started looting fight and killing just because they knew they could. There was no rules anymore and people took full advantage of that. What's no hesitation? The witnesses sounded the fifth trumpet. The trumpet Sounded as though A million babies were screaming out in causing everyone to drop to their knees and hold their ears. The sound penetrated them, causing mass hysteria. With an hours of the Trumpet sounding hells Pit of torment Tour open from the Earth's crust and from it, a rupted millions upon millions of locust. Please locust tour through homes, buildings, and people. The sound that they made made people tear At their ears shoving Anything that they could get their hands-on into their own ears Just to stop the sounds from entering their body. This went on for 5 months, then abruptly all that's a locust died. Falling from the sky, as a terrible reminder. Once they all fell to the ground the sixth trumpet screamed out calling forth an army of two million undead warriors, for the next eighteen months they search and brutally attacked and killed close to a third of the male population leaving nothing but death in their wake, once they had accomplished their task they caught fire burning up the locusts and their own bodies to dust. As a calmness came over the world the witnesses came forth speaking of the coming of christ itself, and those who are righteous shall know peace and all others shall know pain and death. In a show of power the witnesses disappeared in a flash of bright blue light and a clap of thunder that shook all that was left. The sky opened as a voice echoed through the ears of all people. Tellimg them to fall to their knees and beg for forgiveness and show that they have true faith in God for if they don't it would strike them down sending them to hell. With much fear, anger, pain, and hatred. People of the world lashed out, calling the so called one true God a false God a sad and jealous God end they would not Worship follow or do, as is it commanded and for it's so-called chosen one, it could also turn back and never return. For they As people of the world would find their own way they could live. Be happy and grow they would turn this world back in to something lavish and beautiful once again. Screaming out to gods so-called prophet youre not needed. Your God is not needed here all of this pain, death and destruction, it was caused by you. And we will be the ones to rebuild it not you Your profit, not your witnesses, us. And only us now close your gates to heaven and hell. Leave us to our own we've already turned our backs on you so you do the same. We don't want you and we don't need you. The sky closed and went dark leaving only the last few survives scattered across the wasteland that was once earth.

I’m 33 today but it’s not a happy birthday. Each birthday reminds me and those around me of my ailment. As I sit in my wheelchair, facing the two melting candles, I feel unable to muster a deep enough breath to blow them out.
My wife stares sadly at me, and my few friends gathered do the same. I know what they are thinking, is this “his last birthday? he looks ready to kick it.”
To describe my problem in the simplest of terms: I am old.
My face is wrinkled like that of a 90 year old, my body is spotted and the skin hangs off it in the most unattractive of places. I’m losing my eyesight, my hair is white, and I’m barely able to walk on my own. I’m so fucking old my boney, vein-riddled hands shake as I try to raise a spoonful of cake to my mouth. I mash the cake around my mouth with the few teeth I have left.
And all this biological ageing has happened to me over the last seven years. The doctors had many theories, but no solutions. Some said Progeria, the premature ageing syndrome, but that starts when you are young, usually just two years old. I was in my mid twenties when my ageing accelerated.
The doctors were not only useless they were suffocating. When you have an ailment as rare as mine there is an overwhelming pressure from the science and medical community to “discover” the cause. You might think this a good thing…. a glimmer of hope that my condition could be halted or reversed - but no - they are fuelled by greed. If they could figure out the cause of my ageing, they could potentially gain insight into all human ageing, and how to slow it and ultimately how to profit in the billions.
So I called a halt to the daily testing and life of a lab rat. And now I plan to live out my newfound old age in private, with my wife and friends.
I’m 33. I should be traveling the world, snowboarding, dancing, getting drunk with friends and staggering home yelling obscenities at five in the morning. But age has descended on my now frail body like an ever shrinking prison cell.
For six years I’ve turned to reddit for help on many varied topics. Troubleshooting houseplants, DIY car repair and even how to brush my dog’s teeth. I write this in a last ditch attempt that someone, a doctor, a psychologist or biologist, can identify what’s happening to me and help.
I think I was 26 when I started losing track of time. The scary thing is, I find that it’s really hard to remember the second half of my 20’s at all. It went by so, so fast. I have to look back at old emails, entries into my calendar and text messages to remind myself of where I was and what I was doing over the past few years.
But I do vividly remember when I first noticed time slipping on me. It was 2016, a year of many forgetful films and very few good ones. As a film buff I was always at the movies or reading the trade mags. I was at the cinema with Sammy (my girlfriend) watching one of the only good films of that year, Arrival.
Sammy and I shared a love for films and we sat in the very front row of a late night screening, so as to have the screen to ourselves. About 30 minutes into the film, it became tense, Sammy and I held hands. In a blink the credits were rolling. As the lights came up Sammy turned to me to get my thoughts on the film, but I had missed almost all of it. I was so embarrassed at having apparently fallen asleep, that I just agreed with everything that Sammy said about the film and then returned the next day to watch it alone.
This sort of thing started to happen more and more, and I thought I was losing my mind. There were times when Sammy and I would be in bed spooning after an evening love session, and suddenly it would be morning and I would feel completely unrested.
Other times my loss of time was welcoming. Like the time we flew 13hrs to Australia, in cramped seats with crying babies on either side. That flight which was bound to torture me for hours felt as if it was just ten minutes long.
But I wasn’t really scared until I noticed the physical effects of lost time. It started with the crows feet around my eyes, then the grey hairs began to appear, the back pain and eventually the liver spots. All of this before the age of 30.
The hardest part was the reaction of those around me. My friends teased at first, about the grey hair and the wrinkles but as my condition developed most of them became concerned or disappeared from my life entirely.
At Christmas when a family photo was taken, I was devastated to see I looked older than my own parents.
And yet Sammy stayed by my side, never seeming to notice, never seeming to be concerned or bothered despite me constantly unloading my despair on her. Sammy just continued to smile, her youthful smile, a smile that never changed over the seven years we’ve been together.
And now as I chew my cake and Sammy happily enjoys hers and laughs with our friends, I wonder why she stuck with me so long. She hasn’t changed a bit from the day I met her, she was 21 at the time and doesn’t look a day older now. When people see us together they think she’s my granddaughter. When they find out we’re a couple they are then disgusted and think she’s a gold-digger, the sad part is I’m far from rich and she is now the sole provider for our household.
I fall asleep in my chair, which is common these days as I have little energy, and by the time I awake my friends have all left. Sammy wheels me out of the kitchen and into the bedroom. She gets in the shower and I ease myself out of the chair and change into the pyjamas that are folded on the corner of the bed.
I’m determined again tonight not to lose track of time. This is something I do every night now.
I lay on my side, the covers pulled up to my chin, and I stare at the clock on the bedside table.
The time is 9:48 PM.
As the clock ticks I count the seconds in my head. tick. tick. tick. tick.
I’m not ready to die.
tick. tick.
I have my whole life ahead of me.
tick. tick.
I’m terrified.
tick. tick.
I count every second and every minute until Sammy comes out of the bathroom ready for bed.
The time is 10:28 PM.
Sammy lays down beside me, puts her arm around me and grabs my hand. The time is 7:15 AM.

For all of human history, people have managed to feed themselves, either by fishing, hunting, gathering, or subsistence farming. Nowadays, we can simply head to the grocery store to buy our meals. However, growing your own food is both rewarding and money-saving. If you’d like to grow your own food, make sure you research the climate in your region, create rows for your crops, and harvest when your food is ripe to enjoy the food from your garden.
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Growing Food in Your Climate

Grow most leafy greens and vegetables during a warm summer. If you have temperatures above 75 °F (24 °C) during the summer, plant your vegetable crops in May or June. Make sure they are planted after the threat of frost is over.

• Lettuce, cabbage, kale, and tomatoes are all great options to plant in the summer.

Tip: Legumes do well in a temperate rainforest and are a great source of protein.
Plant fruit in the early spring in a moderate climate. Most fruit, like apples, oranges, lemons, and limes can be grown on trees in a 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) area. Start with planting a fruit tree in a pot to monitor the soil and water intake, and then transfer it to the ground after 1 year during the early spring. Most fruit trees will not start bearing fruit until they are 2 to 3 years old.

• Vine fruits, like grapes, can be grown anywhere with a trellis that they can climb.

Grow winter grains in a cold, wet climate. If you live in an area that gets below freezing and has a lot of precipitation, plant grains like rye. Rye is able to withstand the cold temperatures and the heavy rainfall that will happen in many areas of the world. Plant your rye in the early fall before the first frost hits.

• Winter grains will usually give a higher crop yield than summer grains.

Farm summer grains in a warm, moderate climate. Summer grains, like corn, do best during warm weather. If your summers get hot, plant corn in May or June and let it grow over the summer months. Corn does especially well in the midwest area of the United States.

• Rice needs a tropical climate to grow. Southeast Asia is the best climate for rice crops.

Let root vegetables mature during the fall. Potatoes, beets, radishes, and other vegetables that grow underground prefer to grow during the colder months. Plant root vegetables in July or August to prepare for a fall harvest. You can grow these even if the threat of frost is near, since they are hearty enough to withstand it.
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Planting Crops

Make sure your soil pH is between 5.5 and 7.0. Test the pH of your soil by using a test probe or paper strips to determine the acidity or alkalinity of your soil. Most food grows at a pH of 5.5 and 7.0. If your soil is below 5.5, add dolomite, a type of crushed mineral, to make it more basic. If it is higher than 7.0, use pine needles or peat moss to make it more acidic.

• You can find a test probe or strips at most garden stores.
• You can buy dolomite at most garden stores.

Break the ground with a plow or a tiller. Clear away any large stones, roots and limbs, heavy accumulation of vegetation, and other debris before tilling. Use a rototiller or a plow to disrupt your soil and turn over the top layer. This will make the nutrients in your soil more readily available and allow the top layer of soil to refresh itself.

• To sustain a 4-person family, use 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of land to grow vegetables and grains.

Tip: On a small plot of land, you can use a pick, shovel, and hoe to till your land instead.
Lay rows with a hoe or a plow. Mark out the area you intend to plant. Use a hoe or plow to create a slightly raised bed in the loose soil in a line across the length of the plot. Next, make a shallow groove cut in the soil with your rototiller and a furrow attachment. Do this until your growing area is covered in rows.

• You can rent rototillers and their attachments at many hardware stores.

Place your seeds in the furrows at the depth they require. The depth of planting may vary according to your choice of plants. Check on the back of your seed packet to find out the best depth for your plant. Make a small hole with your fingers and place 2 to 3 seeds in each hole.

• Plants like legumes and melons, squash, cucumbers are planted between 3⁄4 inch (1.9 cm) and 1 inch (2.5 cm) deep, and corn and potatoes may be planted 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) to 3.5 inches (8.9 cm) deep.
• You can also start seeds indoors and transplant them after they have sprouted.

Cover the seeds in soil and gently pack down the dirt. This will prevent the seed bed from drying out in the sun. Use the palm of your hand to press down on top of the seeds you planted. Make sure they are covered all the way so they don’t get eaten by animals. Continue this process until you have the number of rows you planned on planting.
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Managing and Harvesting Your Crops

Water your garden every day during the summer. The sun can dry out and kill your crops if they do not have enough water to replenish themselves. Use a garden hose or a sprinkler system to water your crops thoroughly every day from May to September. If the temperature reaches above 90 °F (32 °C), water your crops twice a day.

• Winter crops like rye do not need to be watered unless it is a particularly dry winter.

Weed your garden if it is getting overrun. Because you are planting this crop in rows, you will be able to walk the center area between rows. Remove any weeds by hand that sprout up during your growing season. Make sure you get the root of the weed when you pull it so that it doesn’t grow back.

• Weeds are much easier to pull in loose or wet soil.
• Try not to disturb the roots of your crop as you weed.

Deter pests with fences and natural sprays. If you see leaves that have been eaten, it could be a sign of insects or vermin. Use a chicken-wire fence to keep out small animals like mice and rabbits. Remove and kill insects as you find them, or use a natural deterrent like peppermint oil to keep pests away.
Tip: Make a peppermint spray by combining 2 drops of peppermint essential oil and 1 gallon (3,800 mL) of water. Mist the leaves of your crops once a day to keep common insects away.
Harvest your crops when they are ripe. Many common garden vegetables are harvested as they become ripe, and continue to produce throughout the growing season with proper care. Grains, on the other hand, are most often harvested when they are fully ripened and dry on the plant. Use sharp, clean gardening tools to pick or cut your crops so you don’t damage the plants.
Preserve your food if you can’t eat it all. If you have grown grains, use barns which will keep your stored harvest dry and safe from insects and vermin. A combination of storage and preservation methods are the best way to reduce food waste. Drying, canning, freezing, and bedding are all viable options for storing food.

• Bedding is a method for storing root crops such as potatoes, rutabagas, and beets. Lay your root crops in a dry, cool location on a straw bed.

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[Chapter One]
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Late at night, in the back of a warehouse.
Grigory squirmed against his restraints. The rope binding his hands was coarse and too tight, causing his hands to lose feeling. A bored council guard stood nearby, but was mostly ignoring him. He wasn’t going to get far with his hands and feet tied together. It was worse than he had thought possible. They are very much going to kill him tonight. This was even worse than either Stanisk or Aethlina had speculated, and he just knew that they would use his role in this disaster against him in future disagreements. However, he might be overly optimistic worrying about a future that might not include him.
Grigory thought over what he had left in his notebooks, contemplating if it would be enough for someone to continue his work. He wasn't sure. It was a lot more than he started with, but there weren't a lot of qualified scholars looking to follow his footsteps. The best outcomes for a lot of different paths all need him to survive.
Grigory tried not to be distracted by the ropes digging into him, and frantically wracked his mind for any sort of escape plan. He had a single imp totem on him, and they left him with his satchel nearby. That’s something. He would need to be untied to invoke it, and a single perfectly safe imp wouldn’t change the balance of power much. Perhaps if everyone but the four executive members left, he and Stanisk might have a chance to overpower them. Well he could at least be distracting while Stanisk overpowered them. They also hadn’t checked his satchel yet, so maybe he could bribe them with the ten thousand glindi engraved gold bar he brought to pledge his support? Bribes are a type of negotiation, and being tied up while they already had the gold put him in a frustratingly weak position to start negotiations. Not getting executed by the organised crime successor to the Council of Demonologists wasn’t on his list, but he still felt it was important.
Grigory could clearly see and hear the meeting continue in the centre of the warehouse. A small detail that he noticed was just how small the sums were. Robberies of a few hundred glindi? The value of a business protection racket being ten glucks a week? Had the runaway success of his imp-made goods distorted his value of money? Pandemonium Partners profited a few hundred thousand a month, and the big safe in the workshop’s basement held about a million glindi, mostly in heavy gold bars. That was after the expenses, taxes and salaries had been paid. Maybe bribes will work here.
Another trend that emerged was how cheap lives appeared to be. Stole a knife from the boss? Death. Miscounted the take? Death. Didn’t show up to the job? Finger loss. How they attracted or retained any talent at all was its own mystery. On that note, we wonder if he enormously overpaid his people? These goons were killing each other over sums of money close to what he paid each of his security goons a day, which in turn was a fraction of what he was paying his partners. All the people he hired seemed excited when he told them the starting salary, and not a single one asked for a raise. Not the time for that! Focus on the matter at hand! Grigory continued to look for anything that he could use to escape.
All too soon the business part of the meeting was concluded. Two of the Council's guards wheeled out a cask of beer, and a crate of cheap clay mugs. Not great news for plans that require being left alone. In singles and groups the ‘Demonologists’ started to come over to where he was tied up. To drink cheap beer and look upon true evil in his demon summoning face.
“Hullo gentlemen! This is all a silly mistake, I’m sure we can work something out,” Grigory said with a calmness and pleasantness he didn’t feel.
A gangster in a threadbare tunic and patched leather pants started going through his coat, and then his satchel. His notebooks with neatly written titles were thrown on the floor, and the minor spell reagents placed on top of a nearby crate.
“Holy shit!” he exclaimed far too loudly, ensuring everyone saw him pull out the slim gold bar, about the size of a knife handle. “This can’t be real?!” The gangster saw how everyone near him stared, mouths agape at the bar in his open hand. The bar’s engraving of the Royal Mint of Hiruxia glinting in the flickering rushlight.
“Back off! I found it!” He held the gold tight in his fist and drew his dirty, nicked knife from his belt with his free hand. Quicker than a blink of an eye every member had their blades out and the men at arms from the edges moved towards the commotion.
“PUT IT AWAY!” boomed Arcanist Devorio. He reasserted control of the situation with palpable menace. “The prisoner and all his goods are the property of the Council! Put it down on the table, Tricky Tupo!”
The gangsters grudgingly resheathed their weapons, and Tricky Tupo passed the bar to the Arcanist without making eye contact.
“Holy shit, it is actually real gold!” Devorio muttered after inspecting it for a second. “Where the hell did you steal something like this?”
Something in his phrasing crystalized a plan in Grigory’s mind. An insane, reckless, dangerous plan. Grigory tried not to smile when he replied, “Not stolen at all, well not from our plane of reality.”
“You summoned it?” the well dressed head of the council asked incredulously.
“Oh no, not at all! I stole it from the treasury of Hell! You see that’s the point of having a perfectly obedient demon, it does what I say, and not what the Lords of Hell say,” Grigory lied. The Hellplane wasn’t organised like that at all. There was no such thing as a treasury there. He still wasn’t sure how to sell it, but he hoped there was enough ignorance and greed in the room to do the heavy lifting for him.
“Demonologists have never stolen from hell! As far as I know. I think?” The arcanist was in uncertain territory.
“Mostly true! But we steal minor things all the time, like magical energy, or arcane secrets, but the exciting advance I wrote to you about was stealing things like minerals or artefacts and sometimes regular boring gold.” Grigory was hoping he was priming their greed enough. He worried he was being too subtle.
“Well, it looks like you have a new job! You steal Hell gold for us now!” The Arcanist-turned-crime-lord was back in familiar territory of coercing people into giving him what he wanted.
“Oh I couldn’t!" Grigory feigned reluctance. “I don’t have the right equipment, I haven’t done the full balancing equations for today’s planar alignments! I should go home and get what I need, and I’ll be happy to come back tomorrow and we can get a fresh start on this.”
“Not a chance! You’re doing the ritual this instant, or your blood will cover this entire floor!” Davenio countered.
Grigory, aware that excess blood could damage goods, decided against arguing. “Alright, you win, I’ll have my imp steal another dozen gold bars tonight, I guess. But that’s it! I’m leaving after that!”
“Hah! We’ll see about that!” The arcanist cut Grigory’s bonds while staring straight into his eyes.
Grigory rubbed his sore wrists, and looked at the fifty or so people that had gathered around him. Cruel smiles and the stink of cheap beer surrounded him, but he had a plan. “First I’ll need to summon my imp, to help me set up the ritual!” Grigory found himself speaking like a showman at a fair, with exaggerated gestures and in a loud clear voice. The assembled thugs, goons and crime lords backed up to give him some space. Aethlina suggested obscuring the details of invoking a demon, which was a great idea. He slowly and rhythmically chanted in demonic detail how he likes his tea, with lots of hand gestures and steps and ritualistic looking movements. After a few long seconds he pulled out the imp totem from his vest, waved it around like a wand for a bit before doing the quick gesture of invocation to actually invoke the imp. With two small clicks the tiny imp landed on the rough floorboards of the warehouse. Several goons gasped, and one of the lady goons even shrieked a bit. Truly a sad state of affairs when someone calling themselves a demonologist is startled by a tiny perfectly safe imp!
Grigory picked up his notebooks from the floor, and found the one titled ‘Charts, Formulas, and Tables.’. Doing some mental maths, and modifying a few old spells and rituals on the fly, Grigory gave his imp simple directions in demonic. He could have just spoken plainly, but he was aware he was also putting on a show. Keeping everyone’s attention was important for the next part.
“Ahem, is there any furnace ash, or the like? I’ll need to create a circle in ash or wax or sand.” A few people turned to look for what he needed, and Grigory returned to working out the planar alignment in his notebook. They returned with a canvas bag of stove ashes, he looked them over and nodded. “Does anyone have a silvered steel blade I can use? Anyone at all? No matter, I have one!” Grigory pulled out the small pocket knife he used to cut his food with. It actually was silvered steel, since that also came up from time to time in his line of work. Besides it was interesting to learn that was the only silvered steel blade in the room.
Grigory passed the bag of ash to the imp. He gave detailed instructions on the shape, symbols, and spacing of the elements, all crucial to the huge circle taking shape in the middle of the warehouse floor. The assembled crowd of dirty, dangerous, and desperate deviants started to look concerned. What had started as a bit of mean spirited fun was fast turning into the exact thing they knew was evil incarnate. A path to Hell was being built in front of them! A few moved to leave, but the others called them names and threatened their reputations, forcing them to stay and watch. There was a good reason to stay, there was about to be a lot of gold for everyone. In theory.
At last the preparations were complete. Grigory slowly walked the entire outside of his circle to make sure it was unbroken. He had done similar rituals before, but always with hours of double checking, and never with an audience. His hands were sweaty and shaking as he tore a page out of his notebook. Quickly, he scribbled down a final set of instructions in demonic script and handed it to the imp.
“Merp!” it said in agreement.
Grigory turned to address everyone. He saw a very worried Stanisk standing off to the back, and he subtly gestured for him to wait. Steadying his nerves for a second he addressed his gathered kidnappers, “Soon you will see a small tear in reality! Plug your ears, lest the screams of the damned drive you mad!” Grigory looked around, to make sure everyone was properly alarmed, and activated the ritual.
With a crack of thunder and a hurricane blast of dry wind that reeked of hot iron and sulphur Grigory’s surprise appeared in the centre of the circle. A towering rage demon, its black armoured hide covered in dancing hellfire, its wolf-like face filled with jagged fangs, and its shoulders brushing the rafters of the old warehouse. The assembled criminals looked up from the floor and saw the bipedal nightmare towering over them. They stood stalk still, not knowing how to react, nor sure what exactly was happening.
Grigory stood up straight and turned on the crowd, in a commanding bellow he condemned them, “What kind of idiots let a master demonologist do any summoning ritual he wants?! Look upon the true power of hell and despair!! Your petty schemes are –”
Grigory’s gloating was cut short by a foundation shaking roar from the demon. It started grabbing people at random, and biting them in half, throwing hunks of torso against the wall with splattering force. In accordance with the note, Grigory’s imp hopped up on the table, grabbed the bar of gold from where Arcanist Devorio put it, and sprinted figure eights between the demon's legs. With everyone’s fear AND greed now focused in the same area, Grigory took his stuff and ran for the door. Most of the so-called ‘demonologists’ were trying to escape, but a few were focused on the imp running with a gold bar held over its head. That was as much as a labourer would make in a year, and they couldn’t just walk away from that. The massive demon continued to kill and dismember with glee. The sound of tearing meat and snapping bones was even louder than the screams of the dying. As far as distractions go, Grigory was pretty proud of this one.
Grigory started for the door they had entered by. However, it was jammed with people trying to escape. He stopped at the edge of the chaos, trying to gather his thoughts. As he did, a better solution appeared to him. The demon grabbed one of the cutthroats that dove at the imp’s gold, and threw him at the wall with enough force to vaporise him. The impact filled the whole side of the warehouse in a steamy red mist, and sprayed meaty chunks over everything. The demon howled with laughter when he saw how people popped when thrown into walls.
The important part for Grigory was that there was now a second exit. An exit covered in gore and bone fragments, but entirely clear of goons. Signalling Stanisk, he made his way out through the wreckage. Slower than he’d like, and getting blood and worse on everything, but a clear path. The demon had stopped feeding entirely and was just throwing people as hard as he could, first at the floor then at other people. Its roars of rage were now peals of terrifying laughter. The air in the warehouse was thick with a mist of blood from the high energy impacts.
“I assume it knows not to kill us?” Stanisk asked in a ragged voice once he caught up to Grigory.
“Yes, but only not to kill people in purple. So don’t take off your tabard! It was the best I could do!”
They struggled out into the cool night air of the yard, free of the stenches of hell, gore and terror.
Stanisk looked down at his tabard, so soaked in fresh blood that it looked black. He ran even faster to the wagon.
“So this thing is just going to destroy the city until someone slays it then?” Stanisk asked, as they ran to the cart while frantically gesturing for his two guards to turn the wagon around and get it rolling.
“Oh no! Just until midnight” Grigory explained after he dove into the moving wagon. He wiped his blood soaked hands on his blood soaked robes, to no benefit.
Stanisk stared backwards at the destruction unfolding behind them. The demon had brought the warehouse down around himself and was clearly visible from the road. It was still energetically killing and smashing. “That's more than an hour! You reckon it’ll come for us?”
The single horse dragging a cargo wagon with four men on it was maddeningly sluggish
Grigory fumbled around for something to get the blood and bone fragments off his glasses. Finally finding part of his undershirt clean, he wiped them and he replied,“Oh my no,It’s bound to the summoning circle. Within a hundred paces.” They both watched as a few people fled on horseback, and a wagon rattled away at a gallop. Mostly it was a mess of shouting and terror. Knife fights broke out as people tried to commandeer the remaining horses. Horses were panicking and bolting without riders. Some survivors just ran away on foot. With every fresh kill the demon laughed so loud that Grigory felt like it was coming from his own skull.
“What the hell happened in there, sirs?” asked the terrified guard driving the cart.
Grigory turned around to answer, but Stanisk put a hand on his arm and answered instead, “Those filthy witches in there tried to kill us with a demon, but Grigory outsmarted them and turned it on its creators. Keep driving Kedril, we should be safe in an intersection or so.”
“Light preserve us all!” Kedril the driver said. “Is that a real demon Sir?”
Grigory watched the demon grab one of the goons fighting in the yard and threw him in a high arc towards the city centre. The demon’s arm cracked like a whip as it threw. The ragged corpse left a trail of blood mist as it arced far overhead.
Grigory answered calmly, “Yes.”
Grigory pulled out his demon totem from his robes, and devoked the imp, causing a gold bar a block and a half behind them to clatter to the blood soaked warehouse floor and slide into some debris. He was surprised how calm he felt. By all accounts his plan was in shambles and he’d stirred up a dozen hornets nests. Facing certain death and prevailing did wonders for one’s perspective.
Grigory looked over at Stanisk, and he was looking less calm. Which was entirely fair. A lot of uniquely horrific things happened tonight. Stanisk’s mouth was a tight line, face pale and eyes bloodshot. That might have just been blood from before, that got in his eyes.
“We can’t go through town looking like we bathed in the blood of the innocent, take us to the Golden Anchor’s warehouse on Glibstone Street. We own that place, we can clean up and change there,” Stanisk tersely told the driver.
Grigory countered, “First off, the previous owners of this blood were far from innocent, and secondly that’s across town, let's just lay in the bed, throw the rainsheet over us, and go to the main workshop.”
Stanisk groaned and tried to rub the blood off his face while he thought it over, but just smeared it around.
“Fine, Kedril, Remember to do a few triple left turns to make sure we aren’t being followed, like we discussed last month.” Stanisk undid the oilcloth on the side, connected it to the mounting points, and slid underneath.
“I think we need to review our plans!” Grigory whispered.
“Shhhh, cargo don’t talk.” Stanisk whispered back. The soldier cupped his head in one hand, and covered his eyes with the other and tried to get comfortable enough to sleep. Grigory rolled onto his back and stared at the cloth in front of his face. He tried not to dwell on the odd whip crack sound coming from behind them, nor the horrified gasps of the two guards on the driver’s bench while he mentally updated his plans.
****
A few hours later Grigory was bathed, wearing fresh clothes and feeling much better. He sat contemplating at the kitchen table in his workshop. He was troubled by what this was going to mean for his business and for himself. Stanisk was still in the tub cleaning up, and the two guards had been dismissed for the night. It was shortly after midnight now, and that meant more to Grigory than it did other nights. He hoped no one innocent died tonight, but he was also a little surprised how little he was bothered by the destruction he unleashed this evening. Considering it was the first time he took another human’s life, albeit indirectly, he expected a stronger emotional response. Part of this was a clear case of kill or be killed. Another part was these people were awful people. Grigory worried this might mean he had more subconscious bias against the value of the lives of the economically disadvantaged, but that’s probably not it. Being biassed against people that were willing to kill him made more sense, but also he knew the coming years mean that will become the same as willing to kill most of the world.
Grigory put on some fresh tea, and set out another cup for Stanisk when he was done washing. He couldn’t shake the feeling that his worst fear, being mad with power and using that power to violently kill everyone he perceived as an enemy, wasn’t as far-fetched as it was before. These were the goons that might have killed his mentor, Archmage Willoford. Avenging a mentor was a reasonable rationale, at least in songs and plays. Grigory knew that wasn’t his motivation tonight. And besides that was the inquisition from the sounds of it, these ones just celebrated his mentor's execution, which isn’t really moral grounds for demonic dismemberment. He also knew he could have summoned a stench demon or a screaming demon, or just non demon based rituals he could have used to escape without violence. He didn’t even offer to bribe them, just straight to violence. Grigory wasn’t sure he liked finding out who he really was when lives were on the line.
His introspection was interrupted by a sound coming from his workshop door, and he sagged with relief when he saw it was just Aethlina. Relief that was short lived, because the questions started immediately.
“I assume you had something to do with the demonic giant that threw seventeen people into the side of the Cathedral of the Light?” the elv asked, without reproach or scorn.
Grigory took a second to answer. “I had something to do with the presence of that demon in our plane of reality. I had a little to do with either the people it chose to throw. Nothing to do with where it chose to throw them nor its accuracy. Interesting it threw them at the Cathedral, you’d think it would have some kinship with the church? They both love burning people.”
“By all accounts the accuracy at least, was excellent. All the bodies hit Cathedral Square. The Cathedral itself requires extensive repairs to the nave, and two flying buttresses collapsed. At least according to the terrified lady I ran into.” Aethlina paused for a few seconds in case Grigory chose to share more details.
Aethlina asked mildly, “How rude of me. I meant to ask, how did your meeting go tonight?”
Stanisk came out from around the partition wearing fresh clothes. “The fucking witches weren’t even witches! They were just shadow blighted gangsters what stole the demonologists reputation! Broke as shit, and twice as dumb!”
Stanisk grabbed a bottle of whiskey off the shelf and sat down at the table, ignoring the cup and the pot of tea. After drinking right from the bottle he continued, “It hit the actual main Cathedral? The one right in the centre of town? That’s like an hour walk from where we were! A catapult wouldn’t have thrown a person half that far!”
“The one and the same, The Grand Ubrafadter’s residence is in that square, so I assume what follows will be the sort of witch hunt the city has never seen before.” Aethlina turned to Grigory, “May I also assume your reasons for staying in the city are weaker and your reasons for leaving are stronger than they were yesterday?“
“There were definitely survivors, and I was introduced by name. I can’t stay here, probably not in the empire at all. I don’t think they know the name of the company, but Stanisk and I were wearing the company’s sigil, so it might not be long for them to work it out.” Grigory rubbed the bridge of his nose without taking off his glasses. “I guess we should start planning our exit immediately.”
In a rare show of emotion Aethlina smiled for a second, “We are leaving on a ship named the Widow’s Remorse, it’s provisioned for us and departs on the morning tide, in about nine hours. The captain agreed to wait until we were in open water to hear our destination. He and his crew also suffer from a rare medical condition where their memory fades entirely anytime they are given a bag of money. The ship can carry thirty-five passengers, so the guards can bring their families. I’ll describe the places I think we should go, after we are in open waters.”
Grigory was both very impressed and a touch alarmed. “Did you know what would happen at that meeting? Did you know what I was walking into?”
“No, I had mistakenly assumed you were on top of that, and took you on your word about them. The odds of them being what you expected were poor. I also had a detailed plan in case they kidnapped you.”
Stanisk burst out laughing, “Imagine if they kidnapped you, Boss! All trussed up like a rotisserie chicken! Hah! I guess I’ll get packed and meet back here to get everything organised! I’ll miss my townhouse, but I’ve had enough of living in Jagged Cove, it's loud and crowded.”
Stanisk stood up, and turned to leave, but paused mid stride. “Miss Aethlina, how big of an investigation do you reckon it’ll be? Reckon they could keep after us after we leave?”
“Likely.There are cases where the inquisition spent entire centuries on the trail of heretics and their descendents. Those heresies were vocally opposing an aspect of doctrine. This may be the first heresy in which a building-sized demon flung citizens into Cathedral Square. I assume yes, they will be interested in following up.”
“Alright, I’ve got an idea that might buy us some time. Grigory, are there any specific numbers that are significant to demons?”
“Um, not actually, but the older texts are filled with references to threes and eights I guess?” Grigory said with a shrug.
“Perfect!” Stanisks' smile strengthened and he turned to Aethlina. “Can you think of eight nobles, eight businessmen, and eight clergy the city would be better off without? Here, write 'em on this!” He slid her a notebook page when she nodded.
Grigory leaned forward,”I’m not sure what you are going for?”
“In the army, there was a famously clever bird that would trick soldiers, called a red heron. We are going to make a whole flock of ‘em!” Stanisk excitedly explained. “Oh, draw a demon circle on this page, doesn’t have to work or anything, like the one from the warehouse”
Grigory began his sketch. “I don’t think red heron is quite right, but I’m catching your drift.”
While they wrote, Stanisk went to the carved chest where all the imp totems for the workshop were stored, and invoked twenty four of them. Taking Aethlina’s list and Grigory’s sketch, he ordered each imp to sprint across town and use hellfire to scorch the circle into the street in front of the home of a specific name.
After the final imp bounded out of the building and was leaping along the rooflines Stanisk returned to his partners. “Now they’ll have too many leads! Hopefully folk see the imps and hellfire, that’ll be even better!”
“We can just outvoke them in an hour or so, that's easy enough. Great idea, Stanisk!” Grigory said cautiously, still thinking through the plan.
“If your big demon didn’t cause a public panic, I can’t imagine a better way to finish the job.” Aethlina replied.
Stanisk smiled and shrugged. “It wasn’t my good looks alone that kept me alive this long! I’ll send some runners to gather the lads and get this show on the road. Human runners I mean!”
Prev and Next

17M 6’3 from UK, used head and shoulders for the first time in months due to new job requiring flake free skin and head, and wishing 2 days of washing with head and shoulders (men ultra), I have a very dry and itchy scalp that I haven’t had to this degree in months. Wondering if it’s the shampoo or I am allergic as rashes sometimes show when I shower whether this is from the shampoo or not I do not know. Although there is no presence of dandruff when I itch my scalp it’s like it is snowing. I will be wearing a hair net in my new job although am not wanting to risk it. How do I get rid of this problem effectively?

A widow on the path of vengeance,
A life taken, her heart in fragments.
She wanders through the dark of night,
Her thoughts consumed with deadly might.
No mercy shown, her aim is true,
She'll take revenge, see it through.
With each step she grows more bold,
Her heart beats fast, her grip is cold.
Her enemies beware her wrath,
Their fate is sealed, there's no escape path.
Her sword is sharp, her aim is sure,
No one can stop her, the gods assure.
The widow on her quest for retribution,
Will not rest until there's restitution.
Her mind is focused, her heart is strong,
Her foes will pay the price, no right or wrong.
In the end, justice will be served,
The widow's heart, though broken, will be preserved.
For she has triumphed in her quest,
And now can lay her soul to rest.
-The Legend of the Shade
-----------------
One would expect that a planet named Ilara would be some sort of paradise, or at the very least, pleasant to experience. This could not be further from the truth. Ilara is an arid, hot and dusty mess of a world. What little surface water there is has seen settlements of all kinds pop up around it, and considering the sort of planet it is, it’s no wonder that these oases have become dens of lawlessness.
Well, most of them have, a few still manage to be civilized, but to paraphrase a good man, many are ‘“Wretched hives of scum and villainy”, and it is one of these places where this tale takes place.
Nefaria’actul’oproni, or as the citizens called it, Murkville, was not a happy place. It wasn’t particularly nice looking either, the buildings all worn and smooth thanks to the repeated sandstorms that like to roll on through. There were scorch marks and even streaks of dried blood in all the colors of the rainbow on the walls in some places. And yet, for all its shittiness, people still lived there. They didn’t like it, but the next nearest and far more civilized town was much too far away for any of them to make it without suffering some form of horrible accident, attack by the wildlife or something else along those lines. So they stayed, and they endured.
Murkville was also under the control of the crime syndicate calling themselves the Set’ruthal, a brutal organization that specializes in drugs, human/xenos trafficking and prostitution, none of which was mutually exclusive in the slightest. They were scum of the highest order and they held Murkville in their iron grip, extorting the populace for ‘protection’ money and the like. All terribly cliche, but such is the way of the world.
It was a dark and blissfully cool night at the local saloon, and Scaszer - A Solvoih, who are what humanity would call an anthropomorphized snake with legs - was enjoying a drink with his friends after a long and hard day of work. His two friends, a Khik or vaguely like a tall dog person and an Almell, which humans describe as an elf with feathers, sat with him. They were all simply enjoying the cool air and the good drinks, one of the few actual luxuries in this gods forsaken dump of a town.
Flardryn - the Almell - was the first to break the silence that lingered over all of us.
“So, have you heard the rumors?” He asked, his voice a touch chirpy at times, but today not so much. Scaszer and Deikx the Khik both looked at him curiously, then at one another before they shook their heads. Flardryn grinned and leaned forwards, lowering his voice to a whisper only we could hear.
“Rumor is, someone’s sticking it to the Set’ruthal. Blowing up outposts, caches, and just generally causing chaos.” He said, Scaszer and Deikx looking rather disbelieving.
“What a load of ketch, if that were true don’t you think we’d have noticed? Ketch, if that were true this whole place would be worse than it was, they’d be taking out all that anger on us instead of the person causing the trouble.” Deikx snorted, shaking his head in a manner that had his droopy ears flopping about.
“Yeah, you know how they get when things go wrong. We pay the price.” Scaszer said, Flardryn huffing.
“But it is true! They say a human is causing all this fuss.” He protested, and that gave the other two pause. Now that sounded pretty plausible, when humans wanted to break something, they always seemed to do so in spectacular fashion. So one human causing such a ruckus wasn’t unheard of, but still it was only a rumor.
“Alright then, tell us about this human.” Scaszer said, and Flardryn looked overjoyed at the prospect of doing so, leaning in even closer to speak.
“So, rumors say this human holds a personal grudge against the Set’ruthal. They say the syndicate killed the humans family and nobody would bring them to justice, so the human decided to do it themselves.” That was honestly not that surprising. Humans love a good revenge arc. “Anyway, they started small, or so the rumors say. Just some low level scum going missing, then working their way higher and higher up the ladder. It’s got the Set’ruthal scared but they don’t wanna show it, keep up appearances you know?”
Scaszer and Deikx nodded, both of them fully understanding the concept of saving face. But this did seem a little far fetched.
None of them really noticed the human that entered the saloon, a long, dusty and tattered coat draped over their shoulders, heeled boots that gently thumped against the floor and a wide brimmed hat on the top of their head. Nobody noticed them save the bartender when the human sat at it, nor did they hear the softly spoken request for a drink from this human.
What they did notice was the very loud group of Set’ruthal enforcers, who were off duty at this time, wandering into the saloon not five minutes later, cussing and generally being obnoxious. The establishment fell silent, fearful eyes tracking the enforcers as they kicked the occupants of a table out of their chairs and claimed it for themselves. Nobody moved a muscle to challenge them, they all knew what would happen if they did.
The human however, hardly seemed perturbed as they glanced over a shoulder, the long ponytail of red hair shifting with the motion. It didn’t take the Enforcers long to notice the human, nor the fact that the human was a female. There was a very good reason why there were no humans in Murkville, and the Set’ruthal were that very reason, as the men tended to get slaughtered and the women… well, best to not talk about that.
“Well well, looks like we have a newcomer!” One of the enforcers said, grinning maliciously. The Set’ruthal were almost exclusively occupied by members of a species known as the Bholkal. To humans, they were very large armadillos, with the same amount of teeth as a shark and generally they all had very bad attitudes. “And a human at that, it’s our lucky night lads! Seems we’ll be having some lively entertainment.”
They all stood and the trio of friends all felt a bit of bile rise in their throats, feeling for the poor human who had wandered into the wrong town. But the human did the most curious thing, and perhaps the most stupid thing as well. They ignored the enforcers and instead flagged down the bartender, who looked to be quivering in fear.
“Could I just have the bottle, please and thank you.” The human said, her voice light and lilting, but with a touch of a Terran subcultural accent, what they would call Southern. The bartender was quick to acquiesce, and a bottle of some alcoholic beverage was placed before her. She was quick to take it up, spinning the cap off it with a well practiced motion. She didn’t even care that the cap was sent flying off into the unknown as a result, she instead focused on chugging the contents of the bottle while turning on her stool to face the enforcers.
The enforcers didn’t look too pleased and everyone else all wanted to look away from what was going to happen next, but found themselves transfixed.
“Aren’t you a pretty thing, why don’t you come play with us girly.” The lead enforcer, a particularly nasty fellow and coincidentally the son of the Set’ruthal patriarch, grinned as he reached out a claw to stroke her cheek. Instead of responding verbally, her head tilted back as she continued her drinking, a single finger raised to single him to wait. He didn’t really appreciate this, as he moved with such speed that nobody really knew what happened till the bottle had been cut into pieces, the contents splashing partially onto her and the floor while the glass shattered on impact.
She stared at the broken and empty bottle with a look of exasperation, before her ice blue eyes shifted their focus onto the heir apparent.
“Alright, I’ll play with you.” She said softly, and the enforcer grinned, leaning in to begin his violations, only for all of us to hear a sound we were most assuredly not expecting.
It was the sound of railgun coils spinning up.
Before anyone could react, there was a sharp sound of metal on metal, followed by wet squelching, as nearly every soul tracked the arm that sailed through the air and landed in a bloody heap well across the room. Then came the screaming, as the enforcer looked at the stump where his arm had been, and the ancient looking revolver that had removed it. The gun shifted, angling lower, the same whine repeating and now he was missing a leg as well.
The saloon burst into motion as his screaming intensified, his buddies all surging towards the human who stood in a flash and used their foot to hook onto the rungs of the stool she’d only just been occupying, sending it sailing straight into the face of an enforcer even as she took aim and fired again, turning another's head into a fine purple mist. She became a blur, firing and slashing with the broken bottle. She painted the room with their blood and they never even laid a claw on her.
It was over in an instant, the human standing there and breathing heavily, even as she watched the first enforcer claw his way out the door on his stomach. With a deep breath she turned, placed a stack of credits on the bar and walked after the fleeing enforcer, all while reloading her weapon.
Without much hesitation all present who had merely been spectators scrambled from their hiding places and to the windows, watching as she stepped over the prostrate being and pressed the barrel of her gun to the back of his head.
“D-Do you know who I am? Who my father is!?” The being wailed, and the human nodded.
“I do, that’s why I’m here, why I’m doing this. Because you took everything I ever held dear from me, and now… now I have nothing left to lose.” She murmured, and the alien grinned, purple blood oozing from his mouth.
“You know you’re gonna die right? We’re gonna take our time with you, make it hurt!”
“Perhaps, but here’s the thing,” She kicked him over onto his back, a position of great shame to a Bhokal. “There’s room in my grave for you too.” She hissed, and they all expected her to end him right then and there. But she didn’t. Instead she drew a knife and smiled in a sweet manner, yet instead of the comfort that such a smile should have brought, they felt nothing but a chill run down their spines (or spine equivalents.)
“Now, you’re gonna be a messenger to dear old dad, so you best listen close, don’t want to miss a single word.”
Those watching turned away, some getting sick at what she did next, the screams echoing down the street.
Ten Hours Later
The plantation on the outskirts of Murkville was an opulent affair, reminiscent of ancient Terran plantations as well, which is what it had been based off of coincidentally. It was here where the end of this story shall take place, and it shall go down in history as a pivotal point for Ilara. A night of blood and death, of vengeance secured and the end of a dynasty.
It began, with the sound of someone scratching at the door, a sound that was entirely unheard of in this place. When a guard was ordered to investigate, they found only the mangled son of Patriarch Bilharzia bleeding - not nearly as profusely as he had been earlier - on the stoop. He was quickly moved to a secure room and his father was livid, bellowing up a storm of vile hatred for whomever had done this to his son.
When eventually he calmed down enough to not only hear himself think, but to hear others when they talked to him, he was informed that there was a camera attached to the front of his son's uniform. He quickly snatched it up, peering directly into the camera as a snarl ripped from his throat.
“I don’t know who you are, or why you’re doing this, but you’ve made a very grave mistake! I will hunt you down, I will tear everything you love and hold dear apart! I will make you beg for death and I shall not give it! DO YOU HEAR ME! I SHALL NOT GIVE IT!” He roared into the camera, unsure if whomever was watching could even hear him. But apparently they could.
“You already have. Now it’s my turn. An eye for an eye.” Came the sibilant response, and that’s when they all heard it. A gentle beeping coming from nearby. Bilharzia turned towards the source, only to find his son awake yet again, and looking fearfully at him. He couldn’t speak, whomever had mutilated him had not stopped at his limbs, but had removed his ability to speak, to warn them of the danger he presented.
It clicked in Bilharzia’s head that the beeping was only getting faster, and just as it became a solid tone he bolted from the room. He was fortunate to have done so, his son and the others however… not so fortunate. The high explosive charge that had been embedded into his son detonated, blowing a good chunk of the west wing entirely to pieces.
As Bilharzia raised his head from the ground where he’d landed thanks to the blast, he caught sight of missiles streaking up into the air, only to explode mid-flight and rain down phosphorus and napalm over the fields of product he maintained, setting them ablaze. Heavy gunfire sounded, the rattling of a very large chaingun booming through the silence of a beautiful evening, raking rounds over his vehicles and depots. Everything of value save the servants quarters was put to the torch, and he could only watch.
From the smoke strode a figure, one he instantly recognized. He was not ignorant of human history, their conflicts Shumon Synergy or the Valvak Despoilers, he knew a human warmech when he saw one. And this one was particularly well known.
Before his home stood the warmech known as the Black Widow though its official name was 22-39 Ward. The body was painted black, a single red hourglass on the chest partially hidden by some sort of tactical covering that closely resembled a poncho. It was a monster of a machine, and there was only one person who had ever piloted it. A woman who was known as Shade, or that was what her foes had called her. To her peers, to her family, her name was Myra Fields. A war hero a thousand times over, a loving wife and mother of four.
A widow, whose family had been ripped from her by Bilharzia’s very hand.
The warmech launched another salvo, striking at targets that went unseen behind the manor, and his men, his loyal men, rushed out to face the beast of metal and wrath, only to be gunned down without mercy or hesitation. And then the chassis opened, and out stepped his worst nightmare.
A woman in black, with blood red hair, dropped from the pilots cradle and landed with nary a sound. Bilharzia made to flee through the house, but the fire caused by the explosion within it had weakened the structure, a burning beam landing upon his legs and pulverizing the bones. He cried out as he was stopped dead in his tracks, and from where he lay he could see her approaching slowly, patiently.
Finally she stepped into the burning home, the smoke filled wind catching her coat and making it flap. She knelt before him, not a single emotion on her face. She studied him for a moment, then looked at the beam and the fire which engulfed the house before nodding. She didn’t say a word, not even in response to his begging, his pleas for mercy. She had none to give, none to show, and so she stood and left, leaving him to his fate.
Finally she spoke, even as she walked past the waiting warmech.
“Light the fire, Ward.” She said, and the machine nodded, launching more incendiary missiles high into the air, and watching as the payload rained down on the home. And just like that, it was over, a syndicate which had existed for five hundred years, reduced to ashes. The machine nodded again, then turned and trailed after its mistress.
Four days later
Myra crouched before a series of headstones, brushing the sand off them carefully and with reverence. She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. But looking at them sparked something inside her, a purpose.
“It’s done… They won’t take anyone else anymore, I made sure of that.” She whispered. “Now… Now I think I’ll see what I can do to help make the galaxy a better place. There are more out there like me, who need their own closure. More like them that need to be brought to justice. If I can do even just a little bit… Then that’ll be enough for me.”
She rose, dusting the sand off her knees and took one last look at the graves of her family.
“I love you all.” She murmured, turning and clambering up into the cockpit of her warmech. As it sealed she placed her hat upon a hook, and turned them both towards the horizon, and the star port beyond it.
“What are we going to do now, Commander?” Ward asked, and she smiled, giving one of his consoles a gentle pat.
“Now… Now we’re going to do what we do best. Think you’re up for it?”
“Affirmative.”
“Good boy. Let’s go kill some bad guys.”
And so, the two walked off into the great unknown, looking to bring justice to those that required it.

it been a month (sorry but am even more poor now so i cant buy anything, i still have a few but i have to space it out)
am i sitting here at 10 pm (i write the review in multiple days sometimes lol) making a review because i have to declutter my cloths and am TERRIFIED, yes absolutely is it wort it yes
it a few days later and now am watching the fast and the furious am at the 8 right now, ill probably be done by tomorrow, it a fun marathon, right now the best one is the first, but like as a kid my fav was always the 3 one, guess when we grow up our taste grow up too lol
what's a duet: it a concept created by osmofolia (am pretty sure as i never seen it before) where a perfume is made by 2 perfume, so lets say you have exquisite corps that's the perfume you buy, when you receive it you gonna have 2 bottle, vanilla milk and smoked lavender musk, when you layer them on your skin, they become exquisite corps! but the fun part is that you have 3 perfume, and the 2 bottle you get are amazing layering notes (as it their hole purpose) so you can add them to any perfume you want
LIKES: tea, patchouli, tart fruits, close to skin smell, greens (grass, moss, leaf's of all sort (tomato leaf yum)), atmospheric/realistic, citrus, frankincense, cedar, most fruits actually, soil, roses, lavender, salt, sage, cannabis, rosemary, cozy gourmand, marshmallow, smoke, cinnamon actually most spice, pine/fir, violet leaf/violet, i like stuff that feel wet (fog, ocean, rain), ambergris
DISLIKES: ozone, aldehyde, oud, sandalwood, cinnamon leaf, big silage, white floral, especially tuberose and gardenias, but also just florals in general, alcoholics, vetiver, perfumy perfume, most milk, tar, when company say “for woman” or “for man”
HATE OR LOVE no in between: Hay, jasmine, incense, pink pepper, fancy woods, most resins, iris/orris, petrichor
to your attention: this is not really a critique, but it still normal i don't gush over everything, am talking about my taste not trying to sell you anything, i like all the company i talk about and if i don't i will say it. i am a bitch but don't let your feeling get hurt over a little dumb post please ;) love yall lets do this
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HONEY DUST you mean pollen right?
notes: pollen, hay, honey, beeswax, powdered sugar
though: so on the bottle there the name of the duet (what a spellcaster leaves behind) and a number not the name of the note, and when i got them i was too lazy to look it up to make sure i wrote the right name so i just did it by memory, so now on my bottle it written "pollen" lol. i do think it perfect for this perfume it super dusty to the point were if you have pollen allergy i would tell you to stay away from this, it also gives me the same harshness grass perfume give me sometime but it not at all green wish is kinda weird too maybe the hay? idk but it welcome, this perfume is the mix of comforting sweater and seasonal allergy, weird but i love that in a perfume
color: golden yellow dust of pollen in a gold ornate jar sitting on a red tinted wood table
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ANTIQUE BOOK if vanilla ice cream and white wood had a child
notes: paper, leather, glue, old book, cedar, vanilla, cetalox
though: every single book fragrance is either super chemical or super woody marshmallow there just no in-between and this is a woody marshmallow that dry down to a sandalwood-y thingy, i don't hate it but i do think it better as a addition to another perfume then by it own. but on it own i think it perfect for the book ladies that are a little (a bit) more conservative then me (and always ladies in a non gendered way lolll i just have a booktok person in mind and shes a woman, but it not a woman perfume none are)
color: a hard cover book with no letter printed on any of the page (your gonna say, oh a drawing pad, nah, a small hard cover where they just made a mistake on the print and there nothing) and also you know the wood you can find around lake and the sea, it super white and soft, that but in a 2x4

WHAT A SPELLCASTER LEAVES BEHIND cream pollen
notes: pollen, hay, honey, beeswax, powdered sugar, paper, leather, glue, old book, cedar, vanilla, cetalox
though: this is interesting the antique book note almost lost itself in the honey dust, but then you smell honey dust on it own again and your like ok i see it much more chill on the dusty-ness, i get it i get it, it also a perfect on the name i love it! what a spellcaster leaves behinds it so descriptive and cute and definetly perfect for the perfume, you can imagine the scene, a big dusty book closing, the dust particule going everywhere, someone closing a candle and then a door.
color: a huge dusty, very dusty book, with gold corner and yellowing pages
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VANILLA MILK sweet brown milk (smell better then it sounds)
notes: cream, caramel , heliotrope, vanilla, milk, musk
though: that's not for me, for sure, i mean to be fair my skin don't work with anything milk, my only love is milk shaka from Damask Haus, to me this is sickly sweet, but i don't think most would think that, if you like a milk caramel this is for you for sure, this is concerning because of the realism, i mean it smell like warm milk, and the thick light brown caramel that looks like melted plastic but actually taste pretty good, just very artificial, witch is weird cuz caramel sauce is so easy to make and i don't get why restaurant and ice cream shop don't make it themselves it like 3 ingredient, butter, sugar and cream, (brown sugar if you want butterscotch) but anyway you also have a bit of a floral note but it just adds to the warm milk, really interesting i see this being very popular with the gourmand people
color: a room temperature glass of milk forgotten on a oval shaped table, you know the big ones in wood, with a super big feet underneath, they always have some middle piece of broderie made by some grand mother and and a flower pot full of fresh flower (white heliotrope this time) on the other side of the table there a caramel cream pie
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SMOKED LAVENDER MUSK gay fur
notes: lavender, smoke, oakmoss, musk
though: lavender smoke is a pretty common mix, i don't particularly care for but i love this, it fun it sexy and the lavender pretty realistic. if you know a bit about queer history, lavender been a symbol of gay-ness (lol) since the end of the 19th century, and idk if it since i know this fact that i believe all lavender perfume are gay, well this not the exception (i really don't think there one, it like violet) idk know why exactly but this perfume is just very queer to me, only downside, cuz it really smell good, it that it doesn't last super long contrary to vanilla milk that's super persistent
color: light purple fur coat, and a black leather cat suit with cowboy boots and a big chunky belt, but truly it just a smoke lavender love

EXQUISITE CORPS They are cold like porcelain
notes: lavender, smoke, oakmoss, musk, cream, caramel , heliotrope, vanilla, milk, musk
though: you know i bitch a lot about name accuracy but this is spot on, does it smell like a crops, i mean no, not that i know of (and idk every dead i seen was in dust form not corps form) but it has this cold creaminess mix with the floral it just exactly the name. this is amazing if you put just a little bit of the vanilla milk (my opinion, but don't you think this concept is amazing for that you can dose your 2 perfume to make exactly the combi you prefer) i just think it better when it the smoky floral that take the lead it more mortuary less floral caramel
color: cold, soft but lifeless skin. resting on a pile of white and purple flower, white coffin, 2 small marble column on each side to witch rest on top flower pot. people crying
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7/11 STEAMED MATCHA LATTE a dammed good matcha latte
notes: steam, matcha, warm milk, green tea, cream
though: this is the best of them all, by far, on it own, it just so perfect, the matcha super realistic, it super creamy it has this amazing grass quality and i just sweet enough, as a tea note lover THIS, IS perfect. i were it the most out of the 6 and any combination of the 6. oh last thing it kinda also smell like white chocolate just so you know but there literally nothing else i can say to this perfume it a perfection in simplicity
color: white chocolate and matcha ganache, i kinda want to make a matcha latte recipe but it would be too long cuz there way to many step to make a fancy matcha latte, you'll have to imagine it lol
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COLD RAIN ON PAVEMENT perfectionism
notes: cold air, humid air, puddles, rain, concrete, tar
though: i hate ozone/aldehydes, but objectifly this one is not too bad, osmofolia has a goesmin single note that is actually realistic rain this one is not (to me) but it still adjacent, it wet, bright, soapy and and a bit floral, i mean ofc i wont like a perfume that give me a headache, but that's not the perfume fault right like, i know this perfume is beautiful, it gives me Ghibli rain scene, like in Arrietty, Totoro or Kiki the Little Witch, it rain but in a very aesthetically pleasing way, am doing a fast and furious marraton but after i feel like watching all the ghibli movie
color: walking next to a flower shop after the rain, a little brightness in the thick of the concrete jungle

ON THE CORNER OF JINHU ROAD too pretty
notes: steam, matcha, warm milk, green tea, cream, cold air, humid air, puddles, rain, concrete, tar
though: every one that read my reviews know 2 thing for sure about me, i hate ozone/aldehydes like we seen right before and i have weird references, well weirdly i don't hate this, i mean not on me it would still give me a head ache like ozone/aldehydes always do but it pleasant, i think it the creaminess, it kinda chill out the harshness of cold rain on pavement, but it still has the buzz-ness, it like a soapy, after the rain drinking a matcha latte (that has some kind of white floral syrup in) it pretty, too pretty for me
color: walking next to a flower shop after the rain, a little brightness in the thick of the concrete jungle but the flower shop is also a coffee shop and you get yourself a matcha latte
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MIX AND MATCH, if you get it you get it if you don't you don't ok
Matcha + Milk = Brown Sugar Matcha Latte
Matcha + Lavender = Dirty Matcha
Matcha + Book = White Chocolate BonBon
Matcha + Pollen = Fancy HoneyBee With Her Little Tea
Milk + Book = Alpha, Eating At The Library
Milk + Pavement = Frolicking, Naked After The Rain
Milk + Pollen = Sexy Picnic
Lavender + Pavement = Smoking In The Flower Field
Lavender + Book = Gay Woodworker
Lavender + Pollen = Ashtray, Potpourri
Pavement + Pollen = Electric Bee, Buzz Buzz
Pavement + Book = Little Bookstore In Old Montréal
Pollen + Book = Reading in the Sunroom
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i could do a combi of 3 perfume but that just to much work, but if you do please share in the comment your favs lolll
this month as been kinda hell, am still working on my move (to no where lol) and am nowhere near done, now am starting to make the boxes (tomorrow) and it stressing me the fuck out, anyway on that note, how do you make pr? loll (half joking) cuz yeah i miss doing these review, but dont worry i still have maybe 5 review left if i don't count the discontinued stereoplasm
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also, have a great night love xoxo

Hi lovely people,
We just came back from our first trip to Japan and it was truly a memorable trip. We spent over 3 weeks in Japan from 07th May until 30th May. WE LOVE JAPAN! Can't wait to come back.
A little bit about us: We are both ~30y olds and enjoy a mix of urban, outdoor and culture during our holidays. We are foodies, but not hard-core as in we don't specifically organize our trips around restaurants. There are so many restaurants in Japan, it is hard to get a bad meal. We enjoy just wandering around neighbourhoods. Mostly low/mid-budget stuff with a splurge once in a while.
Our travel itinerary can be found here
General comments

• Time period of travel: We arrived 7th of May which is the last sunday of Golden week. We specifically wanted to avoid Golden week, as we heard it can be crazy busy due to domestic travels. And we also didn't want to go too late in May because June is rainy season in Japan. We were pretty lucky with the weather overall as we only had a couple of days of rain, most days were sunny and we even had some days of sweltering heat :O
• Like other people suggest, try to get in shape before you go! We are both in average shape. Almost every day we walked around 20.000 steps or more. The only rest days we had were the days where we were switching between cities, i.e. sitting in trains for longer periods of time. No complaints ;). I brought two pair of shoes: water-proof hiking shoes and one pair of light-weight running shoes. Switching between shoes was nice, I didn't have any blisters during my time in Japan luckily. All the walking compensated all the eating though!
• Check whether region specific JR passes might work for you. We decided against getting the nationwide JR passes as they didn't fit our needs and were expensive and instead opted for a regional JR Setouchi area pass. It was perfect for the Shimanami Kaido. We could travel from Osaka to Onomichi -> Hiroshima/Miyajima -> Kyoto. And it also gave us access to Nozomi shinkansen (fastest) and a great ferry ride between Matsuyama and Hiroshima.

Japanguide has a nice overview of all the passes : https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2357.html

• Be flexible (That's how we like to travel). I mapped out most of the sights beforehand according to must-see's and mapped out what other interesting sights there would be in those areas. The day before or in the morning, we would decide what we would do roughly, sight-see according to neighborhood and just wing it a little bit. We just love to wander around and see what we come across, mixed with some google maps + "explore" function. Some days you are just tired and just want to hang out in a park, or you have temple-fatigue and want to do something entirely else. Same with food/restaurants, we usually just used google maps to see what kind of great restaurants were near us at that moment. We haven't lined up more than twice our whole time there and still ate wonderfully. We do tend to avoid overly hyped stuff anyways. I do keep in mind that everyone has their own ways.
• Buy e-sim if possible, it is the cheapest and easiest way. My partner bought an e-sim and it was so convenient! My phone unfortunately didn't support it and I had to buy a sim. I opted for getting one at BIC camera, which was the cheapest I could find. 10GB for 30 days for 3200 yen.
• Keep plastic bags for trash. Buying food from conbini, and eating it somewhere? say yes to that plastic bag, because you will need it to stash your garbage until you are back at your hotel where you can throw it away or you find a garbage bin at the train station per chance. I read about this a lot on this subreddit, but still I found it astonishing the lack of trash cans. Fascinating how the streets of Japan are so damn clean.
• Try Pokari sweat. :) I tried it for the first time there and I was hooked immediately. It is awesome! Best electrolyte drink ever and it definitely saved me during those hot sweaty days there. CC lemon is also great!
• Go for a haircut or some other beauty/massage treatment. The hospitality is amazing in Japan. You won't regret getting pampered in Japan. They have all kinds of crazy treatments. I got the best haircut of my life for 4400yen.

Trip report

PS. I am not mentioning everything we did in this post. I will just mention highlights. It is still a long read though ;).
D1 - D2 Osaka
We landed at Kansai airport. Before our trip, we also bought train vouchers for Osaka online (https://www.howto-osaka.com/en/ticket/). Best decision ever, because the journey was rough and we were exhausted by the time we landed. We only had to exchange our vouchers at the station and off we went.
Osaka was nice city to start with as it is a more manageable "smaller" city whilst recovering from our jetlag. Despite being smaller, I do think it is worth a visit. Osaka is so iconic at night. We stayed at a spacious Airbnb near Kuromon Ichiban market.

• Takoyaki :) We had our first try of takoyaki at Takotako King instead of one the places at Dotonbori to avoid the crazy lines. You can sit down, have a beer and yes the takoyaki is amazing. It should be crunchy on the outside and deliciously goeey on the inside, doused with sauces and katsuobushi. Man, I wish I could go back and eat it again. It is true, you can't get great takoyaki outside of Osaka, at least I didn't get that same crunchy gooey combo again in other cities.
• Discount sushi from Takashimaya department store. For the budget-minded, this is a no-brainer. Around 7PM, an hour before closing time, you can get delicious fatty tuna maki at discount prices in the basement of takashimaya. Other foods at the department store food floor such as the fresh mochi are delicious also. Takashimaya is my favorite department store for food I think!
• Osaka castle - Our first castle in Japan. The green roof and the golden ornaments are beautiful and unique!
• Dotonbori - iconic :) fun to walk along. The queues are long there. We avoided eating at Dotonbori.
• Shitenno-ji - beautiful pagoda with buddha statues inside. Do pay the fee to go inside and see the garden. You can also go into the pagoda and walk up.
• Huge fan of Shotengai's, Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street. They are so quintessential Japan.
• Ramen Tendo, the first ramen joint that we tried in Japan, so it has a special place in my heart. They specialize in chicken broth with lots of umami katsuoboshi flavor. Noodles were great too, very bouncy. Delicious! Little did I know that this ramen joint was really one of the best we would have this trip. It set the bar high for sure!
• Visit a local grocery store. Maybe it is just me, but I love to browse at local grocery shops (KOHYO namba Minatomachi) and be fascinated by all the different things they sell. It is also a great place to buy food souvenirs, like miso, green tea etc. Lots of pre-cooked meals/ fried stuff. Just a wider selection than your typical conbini. And again discounts if you go ~1hr before closing time.

Skip Shinsekai: We visited during the day and it felt very empty to me. More like a tourist-trap, the eateries didn't look appealing to me. Maybe during the evening this area is more fun.
D3 Nara
We did Nara as a day-trip from Osaka.

• Yes, to feeding the deer. It is touristy, but it is so much fun to be chased by cookie-crazed deer. One more thing: deer's fart a lot. We were wondering where this weird high pitched sound was coming from, those are actually deer farts.
• Todai-ji is very impressive, definitely a must visit.
• Just wander around in Nara park, it's very lush and beautiful and has many more shrines and interesting sights, such as manyo botanical garden. I wish we had one more day to explore Nara but oh well maybe next time :)
• We ate lunch at Magura Koya, a small restaurant run by a lovely elderly couple. Delicious tuna dishes. I had a tuna sashimi bowl and my partner the fried tuna set meal, so fresh!
• We had the best pork bun at Hourokutei at the end of the Higashimuki shopping street. It's a small hole in the wall, but omg the squishy-est juicy-est porkbuns ever.

D4 Onomichi
After staying in Osaka for 3 days, we headed west for the Shimanami Kaido. We decided to stay in Onomichi (Hotel Beacon Onomichi) for the night before we started our two day bike trip. For this part of our trip, we picked up our 7-day Setouchi area pass at Shin-Osaka JR station. I just want to mention that I really love the hospitality of the staff in Japan. The JR office people were so nice and helpful. We reserved our seats for the shinkansen and off we went to Onomichi. Onomichi is a lovely little seaside town to just stroll around and take in the views. I really recommend spending at least half a day here. Don't skip it!

• Senkoji park observatory - we walked up to the observatory (ropeway available), please walk up as there are lots of nice alleyways, shrines and cats along the way :). The view is amazing, especially at sunset.
• Cat alley: honestly, every alley is cat alley.
• Onomichi Shotengai - very retro, lots of cute shops. We bought a nice poster from a little granny there.

D5 & D6 Shimanami Kaido -> Matsuyama
The next day, we picked up our reserved cross bikes from the general bike rental and off we went. Honestly, biking the shimanami kaido was the highlight of our trip. We took two days to bike the whole way, one day would definitely be too rushed for us. We stopped at Ikuchi island (Shimanaido NEST) for our halfway stay.
The sights along the way were great! It was so much fun to go down-hill, the uphills were do-able. We had great weather also, not too hot and no rain. Everything was clearly indicated, we just followed the blue lines. I felt very safe biking in Japan. PS. My butt did hurt from the saddle, so be warned! Bring some cushioned pants if you want to be safe side.

• First pitstop after the first bridge was Hassakuya. You have to stop here! They have delicious strawberry and citrus daifuku! The citrus had a bitter aftertaste, but they are famous for their citrus so its definitely nice to try.
• Just enjoy the views, stop everywhere to take pictures. There are lots of things to explore along the way.
• Stop at roadside stations such as > tatara shimanami park and yoshiumi iki-iki-kan. Especially before you take on the last bridge just do a little pit stop. It's a nice place to take some pictures of the insanely long bridge and have a citrus/vanilla soft cream.

https://shimanami-cycle.or.jp/ for more info and bike rental
We decided to bike one-way from Onomichi to Imabari and we have no regrets. I liked that we ended the bike trip with the longest bridge (4km!!). Imabari is very industrial, but after the fun long way down from the last bridge and being exhausted from biking you just want to get to the station and stuff yourself with pastries from the bakery at the station and go on to your next destination. Thus, we immediately took the train to Matsuyama. Originally, the plan was to enjoy the famous onsen in Matsuyama, but we didn't have enough time and we were also pretty tired. After checking-in at the hotel, it was already 4, we made our way to Matsuyama castle but unfortunately, we were too late to go in. It was still nice to view it from the outside and walk around the park. We planned to do sightseeing in Hiroshima the next day, so there was no more time to explore Matsuyama further.
D7 Hiroshima -> Miyajima
After Shiminami Kaido, we headed towards Hiroshima/Miyajima. We took an early ferry from Matsuyama. The ferry was included in the setouchi JR pass, so we gladly took advantage of that. It's a nice way to get to Hiroshima, just one last view of the Seto inland sea. One remark: if it is not JR serviced transportation, you do have to obtain separate tickets. Normally, just showing your setouchi JR pass is enough to get onboard the train, but for the ferry you do have to go to the ticket desk and show your JR pass to obtain the ferry tickets.

• Peace memorial museum - a history we must not forget and do not want to repeat
• We tried another Hiroshima speciality for lunch: Hiroshima Tsukemen. This tsukemen is GREAT. One of my favorite dishes. We ate at Tsukemen Karabu Tokaichimachi. The spicy umami dipping sauce is very addicting!

Surprisingly, it was very hard to find affordable good accommodation in Hiroshima. It was the weekend and two weeks before G7, so maybe that was the reason why it was harder to find accommodation. In the end, I found a nice simple hotel on Miyajima island and it was a good decision after all! After a long day in Hiroshima, we made our way to Miyajima to stay two nights. Staying on Miyajima island is lovely especially when all the day-trip tourist leave.
D8 Miyajima
Honestly, Miyajima is truly magical. Another highlight of our trip! We started the day early to get ahead of the crowd and that made it all so much more enjoyable. Seeing shrines and temples without a crowd is truly 1000x better! If you can stay at Miyajima island, do it! You don't have to splurge on expensive ryokan (although it would have been nice). We stayed at Sakuraya, which was very budget-friendly.

• Itsukishima Jinja - Nice but Daishoin and surrounding nature were the highlights for me.
• Daishoin - it is the most beautiful shrine complex I have seen in Japan this trip. I think it's because it was so quaint and it was embedded in the hill, surrounded by lush green nature. There were multiple complexes. There was a pathway studded with Jizo statues, buddist cave, prayer wheels and much more. While we were there, a ceremony with a monk was ongoing and everyone could participate in helping burning the origami peace cranes made by children, to make their wishes come true. We bought a little peace crane made from the ashes to remember this moment.
• Mt. Misen - we hiked up from Dashoin. It was ~2hrs? of steep stair climbing, 500m elevation gain. A challenge for sure but we definitely earned our way going down by ropeway :P. Views are great! go go! There is a bus to the ropeway so you don't have to suffer if you don't want to.
• Momijidani park - If you don't like Momiji trees, you can't be my friend.
• Snack along the Miyajima ometesando street. Crowded, but the cakes are great!

One remark, our hotel didn't include dinner and all the restaurants on the island close quite early. Luckily, with our setouchi JR pass, we could take the ferry for free, so went to the mainland for dinner. Just keep this in mind, when booking your stay.
D9 - D13 Kyoto
We took the early train to Kyoto and checked in at Tokyu stay Sanjo-karasuma. We had 5 days to explore Kyoto and by this time we had lost our FOMO a little bit and also decided to take it a bit more slow. We still ended up walking a lot anyways but at least we were sleeping in.
The day we arrived,15MAY, was supposed to be Aoi matsuri so we headed to Kamo river to see the festival. Unfortunately, the festival was postponed due to the slight rainfall and we had no clue! but we were next to Kyoto botanical garden and we decided to visit that instead!

• Kyoto botanical garden: it is a lovely garden with a huge variety of plants and trees to see. Really well maintained and during our visit there was a great rose garden in bloom. I recommend going there! It has a nice japanese garden section too with momiji trees and moss. A greenhouse with orchids. Lot's to see here. Only 200 yen.
• Arashiyama area - I really loved this area, not just for the bamboo forest. Togetsukyo bridge and Katsura river were the highlights for me. You can walk along the both sides of Katsura riverbank. A nice way to get to the bamboo forest and bypassing the busy beginning at the start of bamboo forest is by walking along the katsura river bank into Kameyama park and following the signs to Okochi sanso garden. You will end up at the backside of bamboo forest, which is the nicest part. We went more north to visit Pottery Tanuki, this area was very nice and quaint to walk around; bamboo, shrines and traditional houses everywhere.
• South kyoto - Fushimi Inari + Uji day trip - We visited fushimi inari around 9am and it was already very busy! If you hike deeper into the Tori gates, it gets more quiet. We decided not to hike to the top, but instead do a little loop and we stumbled upon some lovely fox shrines. After Fushimi Inari, we took the train just a little bit more south to Uji. If you like matcha, visit Uji. It is a scenic little town with lots of matcha specialized cafes. We ate at Torikiku, famous for their matcha soba and udon. I had the best matcha icecream dessert at Nakamura Tokichi Byodo-in. Again, the river views are beautiful! It's a great daytrip from kyoto. On the way back to kyoto, we spontaneously decided to visit the Gekkeikan Sake museum. It's a small museum, mostly about the history of Gekkeikan, but for 500 yen entry fee, you also get 3 small sake tastings. Fun for an hour or so. I wouldn't go all the way here just for the museum, but for us it was a nice stop on the way back to Kyoto.
• Gion - visit Gion in the evening and just wander around the little streets. Hanamikoji street is one of the more famous streets there.
• We ate amazing gyoza lunch at Gyoza-dokoro Sakemasa. Best gyozo of our trip.
• Higashiyama area - Heian jingu shrine, visit the attached garden for a fee, definitely worth it! We ate amazing mazesoba and ramen for lunch at Menya Yamahide. We also visited Kyoto handicraft center in this area where we bought an ukiyo-e painting. There was also a vintage antique market at that day. We just browsed a bit around the market and honestly that was a day worth of exploring :).

I didn't mention everything we did in Kyoto here. We also had so much more planned for Kyoto, but didn't get around to it, which was totally fine! We were also a bit temple-fatigued by that time and needed a slower pace. Hopefully next time, we can visit some of things we skipped. Furthermore, some days were incredibly hot (30 C degrees and humid) or we had whole days of rain. On those days, we decided to go shopping instead.

• Sanjo Meiten-gai shopping arcade , Compasso teramachi. One long shopping street between Omiya and Kyoto-kawaramachi station. My favorite shops were: Standard products, Tokyu hands and Loft.

D14 - D15 Takayama
After spending 5 days in Kyoto, it was time to leave the city and head for the Japanese alps. We took the shinkansen to Nagoya, where we changed to a limited express to Takayama. It took around 3 hours to get to Takayama, but we didn't mind. Train travel = resting time for our legs! Also, the views from the train were great!! I really enjoyed this train trip to Takayama. We arrived around noon and immediately checked in at our hotel (Hotel Kuretakeso Takayama). We had two nights in Takayama to explore the town.

• Hida beef - it's the wagyu of this area and I found my favorite place to eat it: Ajikura Tengoku. We went there twice for lunch, because it was that good. It was our first time in Japan to try yakiniku and sukiyaki. I really do appreciate the taste of wagyu but only in small amounts. I couldn't eat it everyday, because it's really so rich and yes paying for the premium cuts really does make a different in taste and texture of the wagyu beef.
• We really loved Takayama. Again, if you have time, stay overnight and wander around the streets during the evening when all the daytrippers leave. The town has such a nice vibe and it still has a very local feel to it.
• Miyagawa morning market. Fun to stroll around
• Hikaru museum - we stumbled upon this via google maps. It's a mayan temple-inspired building, very unique. You could visit the place just for the architecture itself, really impressive. It has a very nice collection of art. When we reached the top floor, there was a whole exhibition dedicated to a specific religious person. We didn't know beforehand but this museum is connected to a cult. Suddenly, it all made sense why this museum was so unique. We didn't mind, but it definitely puts the whole experience in a different light. It's a 1-hour walk from downtown, there is no direct bus connection unfortunately.
• Hida folk village - Open-air museum with nice re-builds of traditional mountain houses. We spend over half a day there. You can see local craftsmen doing their thing and you can also participate in pottery for example. There is a lovely pond and it is just pleasant to walk around. it's only a ~10 min. busride from Takayama bus station. You can buy combined entryfee+bus combo tickets at the bus station.

D16 Kamikochi -> Matsumoto
After checking out of our hotel in Takayama, we took the 7am bus to Kamikochi. We were only going to spend a day here, and then continue our way to Matsumoto to stay overnight.After ~1 hour of bus, we finally made it to Kamikochi. The Japanese alps are amazing. I wished we stayed longer in this area, but just the bus ride alone to Kamikochi was already a great with the views. We decided to hop off at Taisho pond bus stop and walk along all the major sights in the park. We had no specific plan. Just hike around as far as time allowed. For lunch, we stopped at this cute teishoku restaurant, where we ate katsu curry, a big lunch to fuel our walking. We also saw wild japanese macaques and lots of wildflowers where blooming during our time there.At the local shops, we bought some yummy pastries to snack on. I had the tastiest baumkuchen with cheesecake center and my partner had a chocolate ganache cookie. I really regret not buying more kamikochi pastries to take home while we were there.After spending the day walking around, we hopped on the 4pm bus towards Matsumoto. Checked in at Tabino hotel lit Matsumoto, where I relaxed in the onsen.
Tips:

• We were only carrying backpacks, so we hiked with them until we reached the kamikochi bus terminal, where you can drop off you bag at the storage for a small fee.
• Reservation is mandatory for the bus Kamikochi -> Matsumoto, you can do it online or while you are at the busstation before hiking.
• Transportation in the Japan alps is mostly by bus, do reserve ahead if you go at peak times. Main bus company is Nouhi bus: https://www.nouhibus.co.jp/english/.)

D17 Matsumoto Tokyo
After sleeping in, we did some sightseeing in Matsumoto before we moved on to Tokyo. We really liked wandering around in Matsumoto. Lots of cool shops with local crafts. We didn't know but the biggest national crafts fair is held in Matsumoto. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay for one day, but next time we would love to visit this crafts fair!
Matsumoto Castle - I really like the interior of the castle. It has been renovated, but still contains that castle feel. It is 5 story castle and you are allowed to climb all of it. It also included a pretty extensive gun/weaponry exhibition. Do arrive early because you do have to line-up within the castle to get from one floor to the other. This is due to the steep stairways, on which they allow only one-way traffic at a time.
Matsumoto city art museum - There was a nice exhibition from Yayoi Kusama. We didn't know but Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto. It is a good replacement exhibition if you aren't able to snatch up tickets for Yayoi Kusama museum in Tokyo.
Nakamachi street and Frog street - street with persevered houses with craft shops, cafes, brewerys. What more do you want.
After spending the day in Matsumoto, we took the train to Tokyo, our last destination of our stay. We decided to stay in Ueno (Hotel resol ueno). This hotel was located close to Ueno JR.
D18 - D24 Tokyo
Last 7 days in Tokyo. By this time, we were just enjoying everything at a much slower pace. Tokyo is huge! Staying near the JR line is indeed a must like everyone said. I could go on hours about Tokyo, I am just going to mention some highlights here.

• Anmitsu at Anmitsu Mihashi. My favorite dessert! It contains agar jelly, mochi balls, red bean paste, fruit and a scoop of matcha icecream.
• shopping in Ginza - It's nice to go during the weekends when they close of the streets for cars. We liked visiting flagship stores of Muji, Uniqlo. Go to Itoya if you are a stationary freak.
• Ueno park - Museums, shrines, Lotus pond. Have a look at their website, there are almost always events in the park. :)
• Tsukiji market - very busy, but fun to have a look. Lines everywhere. Look for sushi restaurants that open around 11am, line up at one of those places. I don't think it has to be the one with 4.5 rating and 1000 reviews. Why? There are so many good restaurants in Tsukiji area. We went to Tsukiji Kagura Sushi.
• Hamarikyu gardens - Bonsai pine trees pruned to perfection. Ponds filled with sea water, thus there were seabass, little sardines and jellyfish in the water. Very special! You also had a nice skyline view from the park which is a cool contrast! It was nice and quiet.
• Tokyo Skytree - best view :) it also has a great shopping complex attached to it.
• Asakusa area - Senso-ji
• Yanaka Ginza - we went during the weekend and there was live music, little stalls and just very lively in general. Really nice to spend a morning. Largest preserved cemetery, which apparently welcomes visitors a lot for flower viewings. It is a preserved neighborhood with traditional houses and lots of shops selling crafts, gifts, souvenirs, and unique snacks.

That's it!
For 24 days, we spend around ~2500 euro p.p. (excl. 1000,- flights). This amount includes food, transportation, entrancefees and shopping/gifts. so average is ~100 euro/day. We didn't track every cost. Hotel costs were 900,- pp, which ranged from 50,- to 120,- per night accommodations. The conversion yen/euro is also great at the moment, so it might have contributed!
I hope you enjoyed my trip report. Let me know if there are any questions.

this critique is a bit long, pls read through if you have the time and patience. keep in mind this review is coming from a person who almost never gets angry and is not at all hot headed. thank you.
where to start with this. i don't think i've hated any character, book/tv, as much as i hate alex volkov. i don't adore twisted love or anything but at least i consider it ok. but oh my god, this male protagonist ruined the book for me. i liked ava chen, pretty avg female protagonist but likable imo, my favorite part ab the book was probably her backstory. now alex, i hated him with a passion since he made his entrance in the book. look i get it, he's the everyday love interest. the cold, arrogant, unfeeling, traumatised guy people fall in love with. so i do sometimes, but this was just so badly written. he felt like a 15 y/o writing ab her dream man on tumblr.
all in all what pissed me off ab alex volkov:
he's an arrogant piece of shit. no, not the lovable kind, the other one. if he wants something, he must have it; no exceptions. the feeling that i got from the beginning of their love story, and only strengthend over the course of book, was that he felt that ava was something for him to have. not someone, something. no one else could look in her direction, let alone have her once he set his eyes on her. he took all her decisions for her as if she wasn't a grown ass woman living just fine before he came along. a line by jules would sum this up perfectly in one of the most infuriating scenes of the book, "ava has her own life, and she's not a dog. she doesn't have to jump every time you say fetch."
specific parts that rly rly pissed me off ab alex volkov:
ava's boudoir shoot.
now this chapter. this chapter infuriated me so much i threw the book across the room & had to take a cold shower. the audacity of alex in this chapter, i couldn't digest. from getting worked up bc a woman is not answering your text to threatening another man who did nothing wrong to forcing his decision on her, this chapter had it all. the scene was of a boudoir shoot, something which is very much a thing in photography. ava is an adult woman who completely consented to this. the man was covering her face when posting/adding it to his portfolio. everything is absolutely ok. but no alex has to intervene. why? bc she's under his "protection" which is a guise for control. her brother too was overprotective but nothing like this. he made her, forced her to leave. and the line that infuriated me the most was "i'm doing this for your own good" like he always knows what's best for her, keeping in mind he constantly critiqued himself on how flawed he was and ended up pushing ava away for the same reason.
the london arc.
now this arc, had everything from stalking to fucking threatening.
i would have absolutely been happy if ana huang had ended this book with ava finding happiness and peace in london (coming from a person who loves romance and happy endings) bc the ending that i got from this book i hated. ava clearly is healing months after alex's "betrayal", which i'm not even going to touch on bc that was the most basic plotline ever played out in a romance book. she switched to london, is having fun with new friends, going out, working, clearly taking time for herself. but we can't have that can we? bc god forbid a woman actually heal and not go back to a relationship that was more toxic than a vat of acid. alex appears and completely flips ava's life upside down, again. let's not even go into the whole having her constantly followed by someone thing. if that's what passes for romance i must've been fucking blind all this time. alex appears and does not leave her alone even when that is what ava clearly wants. he stalks her constantly 24/7, does not let her properly interact with any man even though they are nothing at that point, ava is single. he tries to win her over with every material thing possible, not leaving it be, against her wishes. he is where she is, against her wishes. he threatens her against going for any other man even though she has no obligation to obey, against her wishes. and the end, one year later, she just?? accepts him?? that's it just like that. he just kept doing all this for a year and she took him back.
this sets the horrible example, that is already implanted into the minds of many, especially boys, that if a woman says no she actually means yes. that if a woman says no on the first or second try, keeping on trying and trying and annoy her into accepting you and don't let her make decisions out of her own free will.
the beginning of the four book series and i'm already turned against it. i rly wanted to like this book bc it's all over my socials but this character was just so bad.
alex volkov is the epitome of a man that should never be idolised & if you are, pls rethink your decisions.
ps ty for letting me vent 💗

A scene from one of the Hitchhiker's Guide books that I haven't read in probably two decades popped into my head yesterday - and that has happened with this scene multiple times since I read the book. It was so potent that it got me wondering if it happens to anyone else.
The scene in question has to do with>! a rainy planet, and someone (antagonist?) gets stuck outside of a shack while it's just dumping buckets. No one else on the planet, or at least so few as to not matter. The person inside (Trillian?) ignores him and he goes away. The impression I remember is that he's then stuck outside, in that rain, forever, even after the protagonist(s) leave. ! The other example is from Alien: Rogue (I think). A guy in the facility is killed or taken/captured, and the next time he wakes up, he's now just a wired-up head in a jar on a shelf in a closet next to other heads that can only look around. That always stuck with me as such a horrible fate that the weight of reading it hits me like a hammer every few years.
Does anyone else have those moments where book scenes have been embedded into your subconscious and resurface every once in a while?

Banano has just achieved another milestone! There is now over 1,500,000,000 bananos circulating! Thats a whole lot of bananos for us monkeys to throw at each other. Ooh ooh aah aah!!
This has been a long time in the making. The Banano network just turned 5 years old, so that's an average of 300,000,000 bananos distributed per year(freely distributed i might add).
There is roughly 420,069,019 bananos left to be distributed by the banano team. So at the rate given above, that's less than a year and half before the team's hoard of potassium runs out.
Though if you want to be more thorough, the emission rate has been lower the past few years, at around 150,000,000 per year(can be confirmed through monthly updates). So at that rate, it would be less than 3 years before all bananos are distributed.
So there you have it! Bananos are still flying out the door, being flung upon monkeys, and being rained on discord through beautiful golden showers.
Supply can always be verified through our lovely block explorer: Banano Creeper. Comes complete with a pie chart! MMMmmm pieeeee
P.S. - Banano is less than 50,000 blocks from 50million blocks. That's a whole lotta blocks for us simple monkeys! (Every transaction is two blocks, 1 for send, and 1 for receive). I'm sure the block party on discord will be a good one!
Have a great weekend everyone! and as always, don't let your memes be dreams.

Hi all,
Wondering if someone can help me unpack this dream. It is the second dream I’ve remembered in a few years and the first that wasn’t fuzzy, extremely detailed, and vivid. It included folks that represent my past and present. I tried to look up some of the symbolism and am still unsure. The last few years (fathers death, pandemic, recent unemployment) have been somewhat traumatic for me and I’ve been on a combination of an antipsychotic/antidepressant during this time which I have (without knowing for sure) attributed to a lack of recalling dreams.
For context, I had a fairly traumatic childhood and am in acceptance of my family and what happened in the past. The description below references an ex-boss from a recent 10-year job I resigned from that included some oppressive and what felt like psychological unsafeness. The other person I knew in the dream represents a very old friend I haven’t spoken to in many years and him and his partner (unknown male) in the dream represent the only diversity in the dream in addition to the Chinese woman. Not sure if the diversity is significant but there were A LOT of white people in the dream. I don’t live in Minnesota but am familiar with the middle of the state. Also, recently have been doing a lot of meditation, spiritual alignment, and trying to master my mind, as well as asking to recall dreams and be shown what path I ought to be on prior to sleep, as well as anti-racism learning.
Dream Friday June 2
In Minnesota, stop on way to cabin with group and end up in a Chinese women’s shop. Can’t touch most things there. Go upstairs to rest with mom, brother and SIL and I fall asleep while they are showering. When I wake up they’re all gone. I’m worried because it’s getting dark outside and am afraid of not making it to destination before dark or being stranded. Driving dark means deer May jump in front of the car. I can’t find my cell phone and head downstairs to look for others and one the second floor living room attached to the stairs are ex-boss and ex-stakeholder. They let me know they’re gone and I can go with them. I step outside for a cigarette and see a bus (pink and teal) and hop on. Driver is bold middle aged lady with smile and missing teeth. I realize bus is headed in the wrong direction and exacerbatedly grab pulley and yell that I need to get off as driver does not stop. At parking lot exist of what I now realize is a very large shopping center, with wooden Nordic style shops, I run back to the original shop passing by many people (all white, mostly blonde) I re-enter the shop head upstairs frantically and realize I’m missing my shoes and phone. I come upon old friend and his partner (unknown) who are calmly sitting, giggling. I explain the situation and they are headed to wear I need to go and I realize I’ve lost my phone and shoes. I go to the first room, frantically, and eventually find my shoes and then my phone and it’s case which are separated. I go back downstairs and see old and his partner watching tv calmly and explain we need to go. They continue laughing and watching tv and I frantically head downstairs now with car keys. As I head down the final flight of stairs, I drop some food and a stick of butter and don’t think I have time to clean it. As I continue exiting I see two new shop assistants and don’t see the Chinese lady (new shop assistants are young white women with long blond hair, twins) I notice a dog (half collie half golden retriever) and go back to pick up the butter so the dog doesn’t eat it. Finally I exit the shop and get into a red sedan and start driving down the road. I notice that old and partner are in the car, though I thought I left without them, and there’s still plenty of day light. I mention I was wrong and the deer may not be in the road. Michael and partner laugh.
Any insight or opinion or guidance would be very very very appreciated!!! Apologies for how verbose this is and grateful for your time and bandwidth :)

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