Diy hanging ghost decorations

My ex softly ghosted me 3 months ago and we’ve been in no contact. He broken up with me for several reasons (one being lack of trust) but after the break up we still talked a week later and had sex. His communication with me wasn’t prioritized anymore and we would only talk every other day. And at this point he let me know he was seeing other women also. This caused a fight. This same day I said something to hurt his feelings during an argument we had and he ghosted me for months.
Just a few days ago I was told by someone to contact him because he told them to tell me. I called him and I asked what did he want. He gets confused and wanted to know if I missed him and wanted to come over to where I was. Which was my mother house. I told him I was busy and we could hang out later. . He wanted to come over to my house while he was out and meet my mother. Around 8 at night he calls and wants me to come over to his house but I come up with another excuse. I asked him about the “other women” he was seeing and he said he didn’t remember telling me that. Then he let’s me know we would talk later but it’s been five days since I actually heard from him. I texted him yesterday but he texted me once back and left me on delivered. I don’t know if I was supposed to be rude to him or ignore him after what he did. What should I do?
TL:DR:ex came back in my life for one day

Hellooo... another day, another post & hopefully another slay.
So I'm looking for extremely dry texters who have nothing to say except for one-word at a time!
It's just so much fun and we could even metaphorically decorate the desert together from time to time with exciting "hru, wyd"'s before ghosting each other.
Doesn't that sound absolutely amazing?? If that sparked your interest read no further (too long anyway)
A little about me:
I like

• psychology
  
• rain (nature taking a shower.. instantly makes me happy)
  
• horror movies
  
• video games (I am playing wild rift atm :]) You can text me if you'd like to play
  

and I have this weird habit of setting my alarm to way before I actually need to wake up so I can just press snooze. Gives me a sense of control and "Oh yes I can sleep more" satisfaction.
I'm introverted and I'm someone who usually never posts or comments anything anywhere.. I also don't drink, smoke or go clubbing.
And please note that I'm only looking for people who aren't toxic, in a low/ negative/complain-mood 24/7 because it's extremely draining if someone constantly traumadumps or isn't very self-motivated.
Let's be friends I guess hmm

I have the following extra DIYs available if anyone needs them. Please comment which recipes you want, and I will message you for a Dodo code to drop them off.
Bamboo Shelf
Bamboo Wand
Barbell x2
Brown Sugar Poundcake
Cardboard Table
Carrot Juice
Cherry Umbrella
Coconut Juice
Coconut Pancakes
Cool Pansy Crown
Dark Bamboo Bath Mat
Firewood
Fruit Basket
Fruit Salad
Full-body Glowing-moss Suit
Garden Bench
Glowing-moss Flooring x2
Glowing-moss Jar
Glowing-moss Rug
Golden Candlestick
Golden Casket
Golden Decorative Plate
Golden Dung Beetle
Golden Gears
Golden Piggy Bank
Iron Doorplate
Ironwood Bed
Ironwood Clock
Jarred Mushrooms
Jungle Flooring
Log Dining Table
Mermaid Closet
Mermaid Shelf
Mermaid Vanity
Mixed-fruits Crepe
Orange End Table
Orange Jelly
Orange Tart
Pear Dress
Pear Pie
Pear Tart
Pizza Margerita
Plain Cupcakes
Plain Wooden Shop Sign
Pumpkin Curry
Pumpkin Scones
Rope-net Flooring
Ruined Arch
Ruined Broken Pillar
Shell Rug
Stacked Bottle Crates
Star Wand
Suspicious Cauldron
Timber Doorplate
Tomato Bagel Sandwich
Tropical Vista
Vine Hanging Chair
Vine Outfit
Wooden Stool

Ever since our childhood, me and Daniel loved to play in nature. We went everywhere, we saw fields, we saw creeks, we even got lost in the forest a few times like the idiots we were.
But something that really caught our attention as kids was the orchard situated about a kilometer away from my house, it belonged to our neighbor, Mr. Tanaka, a wealthy man who remained humble and kind to us. We would go there from time to time, and when Mr. Tanaka let us inside, we would see all the trees in it and it was quite magical.
The one thing that made Mr. Tanaka stand out from everyone else, was that he was quite the flamboyant man, he liked to decorate each one of his trees with unique pieces of cloth and symbols, it seemed to us like he knew every single one personally. The way they were shaped was also extremely bizarre, it almost seemed like each tree had its own story to tell. for a while, i thought Mr. Tanaka could speak to them, because he handled them with such care..I couldn’t help but be moved by this man’s devotion.
One day, the both of us went to him with small apple saplings in our hands. We asked him if he could allow us to plant these in his orchard. He chuckled and told us that we could do that, but only once we were fully grown up and could handle the responsibility of taking care of them. “Just like a tree needs to be mighty and strong to bear its fruit, you’ll have to be great and wise to bear your own fruit..The fruit that lies in you.” He told me pointing at my heart.
I truly took those words to heart, no pun intended. And I've been thinking about them since that day. Actually, now that i’ve mentioned it, I've never even seen a single fruit pop out from Mr. Tanaka’s orchard. maybe he uses those trees for something other than fruit, like paper or wood?
Today, I've come back from college to my quaint little neighborhood. I meet with Daniel again, and we decide to check out Mr. Tanaka’s orchard, for old time’s sake. Now we’re in the car, Daniel drives and I'm messing around, recording with my camera like I'm filming some stupid urban exploration vlog.
I ask Daniel about what Mr. Tanaka’s been up to lately, he answers that he’s been secluding himself as of late, for whatever reason, but Daniel jokingly theorizes that maybe his old age caught up to him. but he’s been a different person lately, no more joy. While he’s still taking care of his trees, Daniel tells me he’s been more of a robotic servant chained by his duty than the green-fingered tree enthusiast from our childhood.
We’re now approaching the gate to the orchard. It's already night by the time we’re here, but I suppose the moonlight’s gonna be enough for us to see. I get out and a nostalgic scent enters my nose, I'm reliving all of my moments here in an instantaneous flash. The trees glow faintly under the moon’s gentle light and we sneak into the orchard. I hear the wind whistle just above my ear. The sight is nothing short of breathtaking, a thousand trees, all personalized with vibrant colors, and charms, and symbols, basking in the night, devoid of anything else.
Daniel suggests we don’t wander too far lest we get lost, But we walk and walk and admire each tree’s design, i remember this one! And that one! And all of these here! Are we being pulled further and further into the orchard by their beauty?
Now we’re about 2 kilometers from the gate, I never even realized the orchard extended this far, now it’s getting quite dark and the wind blows harder. My heart is beating faster but I'm not sure if it’s from excitement or fear. Daniel abruptly stops, “I think we should go back now..” he tells me, we look at each other for a brief moment. We’re suddenly startled by the sound of wind chimes hanging from the trees. We look around us, it’s like the trees are speaking to us, welcoming us with a ritualistic chant.
I feel the cold wind in the back of my neck get colder, my heart is beating so fast now. I can’t help but feel that something isn’t right anymore. I look at my arms and I've got the pointiest goosebumps I've ever had. I approach one of the trees and feel it with my hands. This tree feels oddly warm, I run my palm through it and feel vibrations..I’m hearing something now..I put my ear against the tree..Is that a slow, heavy, drum beat i’m hearing? No..It’s more like a heartbeat.
My eyes widen and my throat feels narrow, I shiver. I’m hit with a wave of dread. I must get out..I hear Daniel call out for me. I find him staring at a young sapling on the ground, now I'm hellbent on leaving, “Daniel, let’s get out of here now!”
But Daniel is unresponsive, it’s as if he’s caught in a trance, i see him fall to his knees, He screams in pain, I run to him...The sapling’s leaves are stabbing into his face, penetrating his face, he lets out the most agonizing yelp i’ve ever heard..The sapling’s trunk fuses with Daniel’s face. It grows and grows and lifts his body into the air. I can’t do anything but stare in disbelief, am I dreaming?
Daniel’s limp body starts to contort, soon I see his veins bulging out of him. I still hear his muffled screaming, he spasms like a puppet and bloody chunks of wood start to burst out of his flesh. His back splits in half and his ribcage opens up..I’m watching my best friend be viciously killed before me. Daniel’s ribs have turned into solid wood and leaves are springing out of them. There’s nothing left of him anymore.
I stare at the tree next to me for a moment, my mind is destroyed now, i stand up and walk away, i don’t even have the strength to run. But I feel a surging, pulsing pain in my legs. I look down and see that my veins have come out of my body and buried themselves deep in the soil. Everything goes blank.
I am awake again, but I can't move, I can't speak, I can only see what’s around me..Oh..That’s right, i’ve turned into a tree now.
From one of my branches sprouts a fruit..It’s like an apple, but it’s veiny and bloody, and it pumps, it beats. I see Mr. Tanaka approaches, he stares at me with a blank look on his face. He plucks the apple from my branch and a jet of blood splurts out of me.
“You’re back.” he says, a faint smile forming on his face.

There is literally no excuse for ghosting. Just lie or make something up if you have to! Don’t get me wrong, being honest is always the better option here, but even if you have to fib, to me it will ALWAYS be better than leaving someone hanging and questioning themselves…
I can totally see just dropping the conversation if a few messages back and forth don’t go anywhere, but after talking for a bit or going on some dates ghosting is never the way.

Long story short this girl 22F was someone I 23M was talking to for a few months. I was introduced to her through my best friends GF. She was super interested in me right off the gate. We lived in different cities at the time and we were both full-time college students so we only had 3 dates. The last time I saw her was NYE. We kept talking for like a month after NYE which consisted of her enthusiastically setting dates, but canceling on me last minute. I called her out on this and she gave me the whole "I really like you and hanging out with you but I'm not ready for a relationship". I told her I wasn't ready for one either (At the time I really wasn't, and I've never been in a relationship). I told her I wanted to keep seeing her casually and she agreed. Things seemed good. However, only two weeks later she flaked on me once again saying "I'm so excited to come see you but can we reschedule?" I wasn't able to and wanted to keep our plans. She just left me on read. I shot my last shot on valentines a week later (she told me it was her fav holiday and never had a valentine), but she just left that on read too. Shortly after I unfollowed her everywhere to try and forget about it.
The past 4 months have been confusing to say the least. I went completely silent on socials for a while after she ghosted me. One day I randomly posted an IG story, to which she was the first person to see it and liked it. Then a pattern started developing. Anytime I would post something she would be there right away. Sometimes liking sometimes not. This went on for a bit, but now she's just a silent watcher. I think she realized that her liking my posts isn't gonna make me reach out, so now she just watches. Every IG story shes there within the hour. TikTok videos she's there. I checked Spotify recently to see she still has our old playlists saved and on her profile. She's popped up in my profile views a few times. Just yesterday I posted some photos on Instagram, which I know she saw because she saw my story but didn't like my post. Again I don't follow her anymore so I pretty much never see her content besides the few times I've looked her up in the past few months.
Since graduating in may, I moved to the big city that she lives in. I live with my best friend, and I talk to his GF that set us up pretty regularly. I haven't spoken a word to her about the situation. There have been a few times where she drops casual hints towards my ghoster in conversation. IE she randomly mentioned how she was gonna try to move in with her but she found another place. She also asked me if I'm seeing anyone new. It's so weird because it's just a huge elephant in the room.
So today I'm running errands and as I'm at a stop sign, I see a familiar car on the far side. Sure enough, it's her. It was very brief, and I doubt she even saw me. It was so surreal seeing a person that I used to talk to every day, who just vanished into thin air and became a username in the social media world that's haunted me for months. I really don't know how to feel. On one hand it felt really good to see her in person, for just a brief moment. On the other hand it feels really strange to see someone just going through the motions of their life, who always makes their presence known online but wont even send you a simple text.
I'm just really confused right now at how to feel and handle this. I also live on the main street in the city with all the big bars that I know she frequents, so it's almost guaranteed ill run into her in person one day, and I don't know how I'd react.

To start off, i’ve never heard of Sprout Lake being haunted or anything supernatural occurring there.
At the time my friend and i were i think 14-15.
Being young teens we were bored and decided to make a parody of the horror movie ‘Insidious’ on an app called ‘I-Movie’ on my friends’ Ipad.
Took us a while to finish but once we finished editing/watching the i-Movie we were laughing and thought it was the funniest thing.
After, we continued sitting on my bed simply talking about something i don’t recall - her iPad on the pillows near the headboard, close to us, but you would have to actually reach to touch it.
There is room underneath my bedframe for people to shove things away…etc, just empty space, could see the floor.
While mid conversation with my friend we hear a peep under the bed (i don’t remember what it specifically sounded like) we both looked at each other in silence, trying to see if there would be something else.
Now…i’ve had a bag of toys specifically for the lake house (the toys had to stay there during summer…etc) but I had grown out of them and they were tucked away in the closet of my bedroom for my younger siblings.
At first we thought it could’ve been one of my old toys acting up or possibly her iPad making noise but it was shut off and my toys were in the closet.
After a few more seconds of trying to brew bravery, we poked our heads under the bed, bodies still on the mattress, just our heads hanging off the side.
Absolutely nothing there.
We both continue to question if we actually heard anything or that maybe it could’ve just been a sound one of us accidentally made.
Until her iPad’s Siri goes off saying “what, they’re scared”. Neither of us had touched it.
We were both so taken by surprise and had no idea how to react so we had the whole “duuude what” moment.
For reference, we both believe in ghosts/spirits, whatever you want to call them, we’re adults now and to this day we still don’t understand what had happened.
Nothing has happened since then.
People of Reddit,
Could it have been a coincidence?
Could it have just been a one time experience with a
Or are we both delusional.

I met a guy on a dating app almost a year ago when my former relationship was in a “break” stage while I was traveling. we never met in person but stayed in contact and talk platonically on snap every now and then. we are hanging out at the beach tonight or tomorrow night since I’m near his city and he will pick me up I don’t have a car here. He said something about 10:30 and it just occurred to me he probably doesn’t care about a friendship or acquaintance thing he just wants to hookup and I don’t want that pressure whatsoever or to be treated like I’m just a vagina. If a friend asked “he said he wants to hangout at 10:30 I would be like yeah he just wants to have sex” but we haven’t talked about dating, hooking up, anything. And I didn’t think he would expect to hookup since we haven’t flirted at all… why would I just sleep with him? I’m paranoid now I will be stuck with him, is there any chance at all he actually wants to hangout without expecting something? I feel like ghosting him just for suggesting that honestly but I don’t know if it’s possible people just hangout late and he’s not thinking that’s the only thing we will do and then treat me like shit or it be awkward since I don’t want to. I hangout that late with my friends all the time but I can’t get a read on this. What do I do here?

A roguelike is a game inspired by the classig rpg rogue, where any new run is a completely new and auto-generated set of challenges and levels. In a pure roguelike, nothing is permanently collected and there is not leveling up outside of a run. That means that any new game is a fresh start, and after dying or completing the run succefully your save file is deleted. A roguelite is a game with allows some kind of permanent progression, whule also using procedural generation for levels and runs. Once we get that out of the way, we can take a look at wayward souls, a roguelite with 4 dungeons that is set in an ancient tower, with a long and shady history and which host baron amaranth's residence. The game is inspired by mage gauntlet, ad is one of the most interesting games on the play store.
The good and the bad.
There's a lot to talk about, when describing this particular game: the backstory is fascinating, as it is slowly revealed trough sparce cutscenes, secrets and eater eggs, and it's tied to the cursed tower and its inhabitants, the baron amaranth and his family, plagued by a tragic past and influenced by the context of the world sorrounding the cursed tower. That is the backbone, of the story, but many secrets are also revealed by the living and the dead, ghosts that still haunt the various locations and that give us a glimpse of the past.
Both the graphics and the music accomodate this dark setting, and they may be one of the best part of the game: feels like a 16 bit game and not a modern imitation of it. The soundtrack is equally satuslfying, even tho it is not something that i would listen outside of the game or in a playlist.
There is enough variety within the characters, so you will find at least one you will like. However each of them has an intricate backstory, so you may want to check them all, and each character may reveal a part of story of this ancient tower.
The gameplay is dynamic, you constanty move and attach, and in a true souls-like fashion you run around bosses while attacking occasionally, in fast and precise sets of attacks. You have special abilities, which can be upgraded or modded with an emberforge, a magic forge that appears twice per dungeon and that represents your only occasion to change things a bit. The upgrades are, howver, randomly selected. Over the time, you collect gold, which can be used to upgrade characters, and it's the only permanent loot that you can have, except for hats, which are purely decorative, and some of them are outright ugly.
However, once you get to know more about this game, what you see in the first dungeon is essentially what you do for the rest of the game, with few innovations here and there (mostly the emberforge). Over time, the gameplay also gets more repetitive, as you don't ever change your attack patterns.The level generation is quite random compared to other roguelikes: sometimes you spawn right next to the stairs for the next level, other times you run a maraton to get to said stairs. Most rooms are fine, with a couple of enemies, but then, occasionally, you get in rooms with literal dozens of wolves or bats, or whatever enemies is in the dungeon you are exploring, and that is just ridicoulus.
The limited sets of abilities you have in the begininning isn't expanded, you may upgrade pre-existing traits like mana regenetion, hp, critical hits and so on, but there is a limited range of abilites, and only by unlocking new characters you have something more.
As for the health, you only regenerate health when you get to the next floor, there are potions here and there, but in multiple hours of playthroughts i only found two of them, two. That is, two potions, those are extremely rare goods, and you don't get eny merchant either. This is a limiting factor, in many ways.
Given that this is a genre that i like, another good game that i played is the enchanted cave 2. While it does not have such a visually stunning tutorial, it grows in complexity with many artifcats, elemental resistances and a huge skill tree, which expands the gameplay exponentially; for such a simple game, with a slow start, it certainly gets ever more intersting. I feel like this is the case of the opposite phoenomenon: the start is spectacular, it culminates with a bossfight and there is so much action. But over time, there is not any expantion or addition to what you see in the beginnig, for a given character.
The lack of cloud saves is also a problem: your progress is tied to the device, so uninstalling the app means you lose everthing. Games that take such a long time to complete are begging for this feature: again, this is a long game if you wish to unlock all characters, this is a problem.
In conclusion: a good game, but it has a its own issues, and it could be better.

Nefarious 😈
----------------
Hiya!
We are currently looking for new members to join our FC! We're a small fc that is in the process of rebranding and rebuilding into an amazing community. We want to create a fun space for people to enjoy the game together, and be able to interact in a safe environment. We're really hoping to create a community of friends, and not just a free company of a bunch of strangers who never interact. If that sounds interesting to you we'd love you to join!
New players and vets alike are welcome!! From endgame content to brand new to the game, we don't discriminate. So long as you're nice (and only the good kind of toxic) we're willing and wanting to accept all.
What we have to offer:
- A fully leveled FC, including all FC buffs!
- A large FC house, located in the Empyreum (currently under construction to be decorated, but will hopefully be a really fun and nice looking space to hang out soon)
- Friendly FC members, willing to join you in content!!
If all that sounds interesting to you, feel free to send me a message here, on discord at LessThanWise#0476, or apply in game by sending a /tell to Tawny Owle or through our fc estate in the Empyreum Ward 11, Plot 22 : )

Last month, I was driving along the highway, coming back from a trip to my grandpa's house. I can't remember the exact second, but as I was driving, apparently a truck collided with my car and I was knocked unconscious. While I was out, I fell into a dream. One that will stick with me.
I need to type as many details as possible, so here's every single thing I remember.
I was a 7 year old boy, living in New Jersey rather than my real world home state of Massachusetts. My parents would drop me off at a school I never went to in the real world, and I would play with friends I never met.
2024 and 2025 were calm, upbeat years for me. I didn't care much for world events, so I barely paid attention to the news. It was just my toys, Disney Plus, and my friends, Josh, Emily, and Ryan. We played war and crime themed video games and watched hilarious videos on social media.
2026, however, was when things took a bit of a downturn. In March, my friend, Josh, died in a car accident, and they noticed his eyeballs were missing from their sockets after the wreck. I was shown a picture for god knows what reason, and I teared up as I saw my friend's red eye sockets and lifeless face.
That night, I kept my bedroom light on. I don't know exactly what time it was when this happened, but I was lying on my back, staring at the wall when a pair of black pants popped up out of nowhere at the foot of my bed. Sidetracked, I looked up and saw a rusted face. The thing, whatever I saw, vanished as I made eye contact with it. My heart dropped and I called for my Mom.
I chalked it up to the thing having been a ghost. I brought it up to my friends, Ryan and Emily, the next day. Emily told me she was in the car behind the one Josh was in, and saw a man with a rusted-looking face running towards the car, but for some reason she doesn't remember what happened next. Chills ran down my spine as I realized the man was real.
Together, my friends and I decided he was a ghost we needed to avoid. This pact made me feel less alone, and being as afraid of the ghost as I was, decided to never break it.
I slept under my covers to avoid seeing him, and I didn't see him again until the trip I took to Canada's Wonderland that summer. I was riding the Leviathan when I swore I saw a man a few rows ahead of where I sat, with a rust-coloured neck. The adrenaline I felt riding the coaster turned to panic. Time slowed and I wanted off the ride.
This man stole my friend's eyes and was probably after mine too. Once I was off the roller coaster, I looked around frantically for him. I managed to catch him walking into a bathroom. Was he following me? I begged my Mom to take me home as soon as possible.
My friends and I decided to go hunting for the man one day. I think before the end of August 2026. We walked into a nearby forest and waited for an hour. We didn't know where he came from, but Emily pointed out he was around at times we felt the most emotional, and we were telling each other how scared we were of him, which had to count.
Fortunately, he didn't show up. I was overwhelmed with chills, and told the two I didn't want to search for the rusted man anymore, and began walking home.
2027 and 2028 were my preteen years. I took my mind off of the rusted man by focusing on my favourite shows and musical artists. For the sake of getting all the details down, I watched a lot of Simpsons, Gumball, and this show called Camedon that went viral in 2027. The music I listened to was a rapper named Pestilence 40 and a pop singer named Rhonda Miller. In the Spring of 2028, I realized I was Asexual and Aromantic, meaning I didn't feel a sense of attraction towards anybody.
I spent a lot of time researching my favourite things while I'd overhear my parents freak out over a war that involved China. I have a hard time remembering anything more about said war.
The next time I saw the rusted man was shortly after I turned 13 in 2029. I was going through the pictures of my trip to Chicago, and, at the bottom of my camera roll, there was a picture of his face. I jumped.
When did that happen?
I went into the photo's details tab and found out it was dated February 5, 1950. Odd, considering there's no way the phone I was using was manufactured anytime around that year, but I sent it to my friends. Both of them responded by telling me the image was coming up blank. I went back to my Gallary, intenting to study the image closely, but it was gone. It had become lost media.
A lot of the time after that were just casual memories of being dropped off at school, playing GTA 6 with friends, watching my favorite shows, listening to my favourite music, and joking about Secret Wars on Reddit and a viral app called BL. Nothing much about the man...
That is, until sometime in 2032, when I saw him walk by my bedroom window while I was right in the middle of a depressive episode. The chills I felt were one of the four emotional highs I felt that year. For the rest of the year, and for a lot of the following year, I felt numb, anxious, and mentally vacant. I barely cared about anything. Not even the man, or the flu epidemic going on at the time.
My friends were going through the same thing, so we exchanged affirmations and shared quotes from singers who were part of an indie wave trying to bring music back to its Billie Eilish phase. I was pretty much over the man at that point. I cared so much less about him, I considered seeking him out to let him kill me. I didn't think I was going to make it to 2034 anyway... so, why not?
Then in 2033, my depression began to lift, and I started to dread the thought of him again. I started drawing pictures of him and posted them on BL. Over the course of months, I gained a following who claimed to have seen him too. Some told me they saw him in their dreams, some told me they spotted him in a crowd, and others saw him in the window of a house they happened to be driving or walking by. Then there were a few people who told me they saw him running across roads and ripping eyeballs out of the heads of homeless people. By the end of the year, I had 10,000 followers.
In 2034, articles were being published about him. He became one of those big internet mysteries with dozens of videos and posts revolving around him and his actions, with some specific autobiographical drawings of mine being used as artistic renditions.
Some people made and posted highly vivid AI generated videos of him performing various tasks like midnight break-ins, murders, and to be jokingly relatable, cooking and cleaning. The videos looked like big budget movies, and, as I watched each of them, I got a deeper sense of dread. I avoided watching the videos altogether, as they began to scare the living shit out of me.
There was a popular form of technology at the time that let people share thoughts and feelings with others. They were little chips attached to helmets that you could wirelessly connect to each other. Aside from, joking around with my friends, I used it to let people feel exactly how I felt during my encounters with him. I told them I hoped we'd get to a point where we'd be able to share memories with others, in order to give them the full observer experience.
In the fall of 2036, the FBI announced they were on the case of the rusted man after a string of murders across the US left victims without their eyeballs. I was overwhelmed with chills as I read the announcement. It was official confirmation of the rusted man's existence. I called the police, reporting my encounters with the rusted man. They told me they'd keep a look out for him.
Throughout 2037, 2038, and 2039, I'd hear reports about more victims being robbed of their eyes, yet no official photos or video of the rusted man ever surfaced. There were dozens of fakes all over the internet that were debunked, and I just wanted an official one. At the same time, however, I wanted it to be a hoax. I wanted it to turn out the man with a rusted face was just a murderer trying to become notorious by cosplaying an internet legend. I distracted myself from the whole fiasco by keeping up with the mission to Mars.
In 2040, the lack of photo and video evidence of the rusted man began to bug me. That was until that summer, when something was found. The FBI released security cam footage showing a man with a rust coloured face beating a police officer in a parking lot. His face resembled a mask, but looked organic at the same time. It was him. I knew it in my gut. Comments from other victims commented the same.
"That's him! I can't believe it took this long to get official footage of him."
"Yep. Definitely him. Right down to his eyes. I feel cold watching that."
"Yes, that is the man who stalked me when I was 7."
I too felt cold watching it. I deleted it from my search history and closed all my blinds. He was real. It was confirmed. I knew needed to hide away, even though I hadn't seen the man since I was 13. My friends told me they felt the same way.
The early 2040s were full of fear and doing as many things from home as possible. I made most of my money from making videos about music and movies. Occasionally, I'd make a video about the man, but only whenever he hit the news. I decided to share part of my revenue with my friends so they didn't need to go out as much and risk another encounter with the man. Luckily, most people just ordered food online anyway, which solved the hunger thing.
Sharing revenue with my friends became more important amidst a recession I only barely remember taking place in 2041 through 2043.
I began to go outside more in late 2043/early 2044. The man hadn't been in the news for a year, so I joked the FBI had caught him and found out he was an alien. It found it weird he was only reported in Canada and the US. Maybe it wasn't so weird in actuality, but it was as if something was missing. Like he was present in other places, but no reports had gotten out. I chalked it up to a random assumption and went along with my days.
In the summer of 2044, I discovered a conspiracy forum dedicated to the rusted man. I can remember some of the post titles quite vividly.
"The 'Rusted Man': what is his face really made of?"
"Is the Rusted Man the Last Resort for the US Government on Homelessness?"
"DNA CONNECTS THE RUSTED MAN TO DINAH CORTEZ"
I got out of that forum right away and blocked it from my search results. There was no reason to read any of that bologna...
Throughout 2045, Pop singers would insert references to the rusted man into their promotional music videos, but they usually either butchered him, had him get arrested, or portrayed him as a metaphor for the singer's own mental health issues.
While I was glad he was getting attention, I kinda regretted giving him so much coverage, as it meant I had to hear about him everywhere all the time. I brought it up to Emily.
"Yeah, but, I feel the same way," she said. "I sometimes wish I could hit a button and give everyone amnesia for a week."
While I kept hearing about him, I sure as hell hadn't seen him for a while. I thought I was free of him. Maybe he just left me alone... Maybe he leaves certain people alone after teasing them for a bit...
I was wrong. On one especially sunny afternoon in September 2045, I was jogging along the sidewalk on a road not too far from where I lived. I couldn't help but notice the sky looked like a painting. A really good one at that. As I stared up at the oddity, I bumped into somebody. My face colliding with theirs. Their complexion was odd. It was rough and almost felt like duct tape at the same time. I looked at him and told him I was sorry, but that's when I saw his face.
It was him. The fucking man with the fucking rusted out face. I went cold and felt I needed to force myself to step backwards. When I did, the man let out a chilling shriek. It sounded metallic, but like the climax of a sneeze at the same time. He stared into my eyes, which began to tingle. My heart dropped and I broke the stare, turning around and sprinting along the sidewalk.
Once I got home, I shut all my curtains, reported the man to the police, and texted my friends about the encounter. All I could think was, how long do I have to go through this? At least I was 29 years old, so people would believe it when I say it happened to me. I wasn't a kid anymore, but even then, I wished the rusted man was nothing more than a normal childhood hallucination.
I went to my doctor for my eyes, just to make sure they were alright. He found an odd transparent substance under each of my eyelids and referred me to a specialist. Some tests were done and I was told substance was the same one found in every crime scene involving the rusted man. They concluded I needed to be quarantined in my home for upwards of 20 years. I'm not kidding. That was the protocol.
During quarantine, the man never showed up at, or in, my house. I could only wonder what he was doing other than probably killing somebody. I dreaded the idea of him showing up. I had nightmares once a week... other than that, I still had access to the internet, so I watched as society developed while I was unable to go outside.
A political uprising happened in favour of conservatism in 2046, which was met with equal push from the liberal side due to proclaimations of violence towards those that wanted science to be taught in school.
In 2050, Russia collapsed and fell into a civil war, but was avenged by China and India.
By 2053, we were able to use MRI-like devices to project imagined images onto a screen. I ordered one for $100 and used it to recreate my memories of the rusted man and share them online. They were chilling to look at, so I considered not opening them for a while.
In 2056, a major cyberattack brought down various websites. Luckily, no archival sites were taken down.
Personally I just spent the years making content and building a fanbase that sent me emails all the time. The switch from foldable phones to perfectly flexible phones in the late 40s was fun. The phasing out of laptops due to phones becoming ever more useful was welcome.
Things were pretty normal for that stretch of time, aside from the quarantining. I got pretty used to it though, and developed a habit of jogging on the spot for exercise.
Throughout the 2050s, the rusted man made the news once a month. Throughout the early 2060s, he was making the news once a week. This I wanted to look at the news less often, but I had to because it was important. It didn't matter how dreadful the increased volume of attacks was.
Throughout the mid 2060s, reports came out about him destroying AIs, possibly because he didn't have high tech glasses that identified AIs as one of its features, so he likely thought they were human. This led to an upping of security around AIs and advancements in their security protocols. By 2067, a report came out stating less AIs were getting attacked by him.
The man spent the rest of the 2060s and the beginning of the 2070s continuing his murder spree without much to be discovered about him. He was still an unsolved mystery, and had become one of the most notorious figures of the 21st Century.
In 2071, reports about the rusted man's eye thieving became daily and worldwide. Major news talking heads began pushing the idea the rusted man is an alien who could attack a major celebrity or politician. Or course, celebrities and politicians upped their security ten-fold during the mid-2060s due to the weekly attacks, so nothing could go wrong, right?
That's what I thought, until May 2073, when a famous rapper named Fenny DON was found dead, inside his Atlanta mansion, without both his eyes. The security cameras caught the rusted man popping out of nowhere (in a very specific way that's difficult to explain. Either way, I went cold watching it,) restraining the rapper to their bed, removing their eyes, then vigorously ripping their brain out of their head. It was mortifying, and many people said they refuse to watch it, recreate it, share it, etc, but everybody had to have seen the screen shot of the man standing in the rapper's bedroom one second after appearing out of thin air. It was shared all over the internet for months. The video itself was proof this guy could teleport and move objects telekinetically.
The Pentagon released a report soon after, which included speculation about the rusted man's intentions. It was thought the rusted man was after people's eyes because they are impossible to reproduce alone and nothing beats them in terms of perception.
That wasn't the only thing I was wondering, however.
"Why he needs them is still very unknown and multiple theories so far haven't passed the merit test."
There it was. It needed to be figured out soon, because I wanted to know. I anticipated the day the truth came to be known. I needed the damn closure so bad.
In March 2074, I started to thinking of my life as wasted by the rusted man and my fear of him. I was 59 and rotting from the inside out. I didn't open up to my friends about it until I started slipping into a depression in May, despite my quarantine having just ended. That was when my friends told me the most assuring thing they could.
"Remember the little things, and we're here for you," Emily said.
"Yeah, all we can do now is whatever we want to do, because we're probably going to be killed at some point anyway," Ryan said.
It was cliche, but true. The emptiness lingered on through mid 2075, then it sorta lifted. Maybe I was desensitized, but at least I had my friends and the emotionally cathartic shows I was watching.
By the end of that year, I was thinking of upping my dosage of anti-depressants. Emily, Ryan, and I, were hanging out a lot more to make each other happier in spite of our emptiness and fear the rusted man would barge into our homes, randomly appear on the foot of our beds, or chase us down a road. And it was working. On December 29th, I felt the emptiness lift. Who needed pills? We just needed to stick together, like we always had. Emily suggested covering our heads to confuse the man, but I pointed out we'd need to know when he would arrive. We can't wear bags on our heads forever.
"We'll figure something out," Emily said.
In mid April 2076, I was eating dinner when I started hearing a loud rushing water-like sound coming from outside. I went outside to check out what was going on, but I couldn't find the source. I watched as my next door neighbor walked out onto their front porch, then the neighbor directly across the street stepped onto their porch, both of them looked up at the sky with looks of confusion.
I checked the news later on to find the sound was being reported all over Canada, all over the US, in the UK, Australia, Spain, Japan, South Africa, Chile... then pretty much everywhere else. The entire world was hearing this thing. The noise went on for days, then weeks, comments under articles were mixed about the sound. Some thought it was annoying, others enjoyed its fuzzyness. Both Emily and Ryan both told me they thought it was ear-piercingly horrible. Comedians joked about aliens, and NASA started to theorize it was actually extraterrestrial in nature. The sound finally faded in June 2076, and Emily, Ryan, and dozens of people across the internet expressed their relief.
Around August 10, 2076, I was mowing my lawn when I noticed him standing across the street from my house. The rusted man. He stared my way, not moving an inch. As he stared sinisterly into my soul, I was overwhelmed with chills. But that wasn't it. I noticed something off about the my surroundings. The trees, bushes, grass, were no longer moving in the wind. The man even looked static himself. I couldn't help but stare at the oddity. Everything that should've been moving just seemed so two-dimensional all of a sudden.
I pulled my digital glasses out of my pocket and attempted to call the police, but the numbers weren't in the right order. Attempting to dial 9-1-1 brought up a different combination of three numbers each time.
I sprinted back inside and shut all the curtains again, except for the ones in the kitchen, as they refused to move when I tried to shut them.
Over the following week, the fleeting rushing sound returned to the sky. This time, it sounded familiar. Not just because I heard it for two months straight not too long before. It seemed as if I had always known that sound. I realized it more and more as the weeks went on. In early September 2076, I went to the Museum. On my way to there, I noticed the trees were still static and fake looking. I tried my best to not even think about them, but rather on the technology of the early 21st Century.
When my phone decided to work, I texted Emily. Apparently, I had missed 20 messages from her, but I was too freaked out about my surroundings.
"Does anything seem off about the trees?" I asked.
"No? They look fine to me," Emily responded.
"They look fake all of a sudden. The grass too," I said. "Also, I feel like I've heard The Buzzy Static long before this year, and sometimes my phone looks off, which is why I missed your messages."
"Have you told your doctor about this?" she asked.
I hadn't, but I decided to make an appointment. On the day of the appointment, my doctor immediately diagnosed me with Schizophrenia, but I knew there was more to what I was experiencing. The day after my visit to the doctor, Emily and Ryan came over. I showed them the trees across the street and the grass on my lawn. I told them how fake it looked to me. They told me it all looked normal. They didn't notice anything unusual like I did, which only made my obsession deeper. I looked around at everything for a while. My friends tried to convince me to do stuff with them, but I refused. Eventually, they left, and I stood there, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
Every day, I stood in my front yard for two hours, looking at the trees, bushes, and grass. In late September, the Buzzy Static began to feel more localized to my heart, and I could hear a subtle wooshing along with the buzzing. It too came from the sky.
By mid October, the sound dissipated, but the ambient noise was still going strong. People would walk past my house like there was no sound coming from the sky at all. On October 15, 2076, I stood on my front lawn, listening to the wooshing noise, and watching the trees cease to convince me they were normal. Then, the wooshing sounded localized to my lawn, and then it hit me.
None of this is real.
Suddenly, I immediately alternated from standing to laying down on my lawn without having moved a muscle. I was staring up at the sky, which was getting brighter. I could feel my heart beating. I began to hyperventilate, as this was new to me.
Where the hell am I going?
I looked at the unrealistic trees, then everything went blurry. Pain erupted in my chest, then I was lying on a stretcher. I wanted to move, but I was in shock.
What the... hell...? What's happening right now?
Then I remembered my life. My real life. Then the drive... The crash... I fished my phone out and looked at the date. May 23rd. I checked the calendar for the year. It was 2023. I was overcome with a heavy feeling of sadness. I thought I had spent 53 years being friends with two amazing people, but I was really just... unconscious for a short time?
I can't stop thinking about Emily and Ryan. The whole thing about the rusted man was crazy, but some things will never make sense. Last Thursday, I was sweeping my room, still feeling like I had lost real friends, when I turned around to sweep near the door and saw... the rusted man standing right outside my room. I went cold. It was really him... that rust coloured face... those eyes... I thought I was hallucinating at first. I knew I wasn't dreaming though, as you know when you're awake when you're dead awake. The rusted man lunged at me, and, before I could react, I was being tackled to the ground.
This isn't a hallucination at all... Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Dread overcame me as I struggled. Pain shot up through my back. At some point, I managed to get him off of me, then I sprinted into the living room and out the back door. I didn't have my phone with me, so I couldn't call the police. I looked back and saw the man's silhouette in the door frame. He lunged at me through the dark of the night. My heart sunk and I sprinted away, but tripped and fell face first onto the grass. Not a second later, I felt a painful thump.
I woke up in the hospital with that unexplainable liquid under my eyelids. The liquid I had in the same spot in the dream. My heart sank even further. Great... The doctors told me I'd be going in for testing, and asked me what happened. I told them, describing the man to them as well, but in a plausible way.
"He probably had face paint on or something. Something that made his face look like rusty metal."
Later that day, one of the doctors told me my tests have been scheduled for the 9th.
Just yestarday, I heard Emily's voice in a dream, but she was nowhere to be seen. I woke up with tears streaming down my face, wondering why the rusted man had to be real, but not the two people who were always there for me, or the other victims of the man himself.
My curtains have been shut for days now, I've informed my neighbors of the madman, and the police told me they're still on the lookout. All I want to know is who this man is, what he wants with my eyes, how much longer I'm going to live with him stalking me, and how dreaming truly works.

My two (maybe someday three) little kids share a small room with a 6 ft long reach-in closet, which currently is a mess with one long shelf up high, loose toys on the floor, and a rickety 6-drawer dresser stuffed with clothes (mostly Kon-Mari folded upright, but things get pawed around and messy). I'm practically salivating at the idea of a weed-out and better organization and leaning toward just following this tutorial, but I feel uncertain about what kind of storage really works best for littles.
How do you organize your kids' closet? Are drawers still most useful? Or all shelves with cubbies/bins (and, like, not bother with folding even)? Or hangers for everything? I recently learned my MIL hung all her kids' stuff because it worked best if the kids could see all the options and she felt hanging didn't take any longer than folding.
What is in your kids' reach in the closet and what goes up high where they can't reach yet?

follow me as I transform spaces big and small.

OK. First, you must know that, 30 years ago, from age 17-22, I did a lot of crystal meth. I know what you're thinking, but it wasn't like that. I was extremely high functioning. I graduated from college magna cum laude with a double major in Russian and Religion, and held down a complicated job. I was the youngest person at my university ever inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, which people tell me is really something. I was asked to represent my university by speaking at academic conferences.
I didn't do meth to cope with how busy I was. I did all of the above because I had so much extra time thanks to the meth, and decided to fill it by learning the Russian language. All of it. In one night.
I lived a VERY schizophrenic existence. No one would have believed by looking at me that I was a pretty hard-core meth user, and mainly hung out with strippers and bikers who were much older than I. Here is what I looked like back then, when I took a break from doing meth to hang out at a coup. https://robinwhetstone.blogspot.com/2015/10/searching-for-dmitri.html?m=1
Back in Gainesville, I had a group of associates (drug addicts often don't have "friends") whose favorite thing to do was get really high and go out to Paynes Prairie (PP) at midnight. PP is a unique natural feature in north-central Florida. It's a vast grassland ringed by dense, spooky live-oak hammocks and marshy areas, and also a few residential houses that run some cattle. It's very big, very wild, and mostly untrailed.
We'd go out there at midnight and take off all of our clothes, including our shoes. We'd split up, and spend the rest of the night walking alone and totally naked in the darkness. We were definitely high AF, but we weren't dangerous. We were weirdos and artists, members of punk bands, and also, sometimes, River Phoenix.
This was in the late '80s and early '90s, so there were no cellphones, and we never ever brought flashlights. Your eyes would adjust to the moonlight very quickly, and the few trails out there were made of fine white sand, which gleamed even when the moon was new. Once you got off the trail, though, you were on your own, and many dangerous things bit us while we were out there.
One night, I was 1/2 way down the main trail away from the parking area when I heard voices. Lots of voices. It was 2 am, and I was alone and naked. The moon was totally full, and the trail I was on seemed to radiate its own silver light. The voices belonged to young men and women, and they were laughing and shouting and saying, "Duuude!" and "Ew, HEATHER! That's SOOOO GROSS."
They sounded like drunk frat boys and sorority girls from the university. I wasn't afraid of them, but I didn't want to waste time answering the questions they'd undoubtedly have if they saw me. In the moonlight it was easy to spot a saw palmetto about 25 feet off the trail. I ran over to it and squatted behind it, wrapping my hair around my arms and chest.
The group of about 10 kids neared. They were still hooting and bickering. Soon they'd pass by. They were even with me and still making loud sounds. If I were a cryptid, I could attack and eat 2 of them before they realized anything was wrong.
They passed by and their voices grew fainter. Finally, it was silent. I counted slowly to 90, not rushing through any Mississippis, and stood up.
The 10 frat and sorority kids were standing directly across from me on the trail, staring at me, speechless, with identical looks of terror on their conventionally attractive faces. I was 5'8", weighed about 115 pounds, and was totally naked. My pale skin, given to me by my Scottish grandmother, glowed like a corpse's in the moonlight. My waist-length auburn hair was wavy and unruly on a good day, but on this night, thanks to the humidity and the meth, it was a sentient thing all its own, standing out in a mass around my face and shoulders, writhing and beckoning.
I decided to go with what my observers were probably thinking, which was "ghost," or "witch," or "demon." It was close enough. I stood perfectly still and stared back at them, my face expressionless. They let out a collective "YAWP" of horror and hightailed it back toward the parking area. I turned my back on the palmetto and lit off through the woods, avoiding the trails for the rest of the night.
When the sky began to pinken, the 6 of us met by the place where we stashed our clothes. As we were all dressing, the talk was mainly about the screaming. My associates could hear it clear across the Prairie, over by the swamp. Weird night, they said. Hope it's nothing to worry about.

I recently reread The Ballad of Songebirds and Snakes and have some thoughts about the ending and how Lucy Gray "Knew". These are just my thoughts using parallels I noticed upon my second reading.
First, when Lucy Gray Baird asks Snow if he's ready to runaway with her the day of, he replies with something like,"What other choice do I have?" He corrects himself to something softer when he realizes that sounds harsh, but I think Lucy Gray Baird still took notice of how he initially answered her question. I call this red flag number one. Lucy Gray Baird is smart and always knows where the "snakes are". She survived the Hunger Games not that long ago and saw the signs of someone who she trusted enough to align her game with, Jessup, slowly turn against her (due to rabies) and try to kill her. I think Lucy Gray Baird applied her survival techniques from the Games to survive Snow, but more about that later.
Second, Snow lets it slip that he killed three people, and Lucy Gray Baird has to ask him three times who the third one was. When Snow does answer, he gives a fluffy philosophical response. I think she took notice of this as well. I don't know that Lucy Gray Baird immediately knew at this moment the Snow was responsible for Sejanus Plinth's death, but I think she realized that Snow didn't trust her enough to tell her the truth about who else he killed and trust is huge to her. This was another red flag.
Third, Snow stumbles upon the guns (something Lucy Gray Baird already doesn't trust) and is now presented with a choice to abandon her. I think she takes in how long he looks at the guns. I feel like she realizes that someone who doesn't fully trust her has something that she doesn't trust and this person is supposed to be allied with her, (again much like Jessup in the Games). I think Lucy Gray Baird then assessed the situation and decided she wanted to put as much distance between her and Snow at that moment, like when she finally ran away from Jessup in the area. She left with a knife and lied about leaving to dig up some Katniss because she saw this third red flag.
I think that Lucy Gray Baird's snake-in-the- scarf bit is done for several reasons. One great benefit is she was able to watch Snow's reaction to the trap to further assess how much more of a threat he was to her safety. There are a million responses Snow could have had to the snake, but he chose to decorate the trees with bullets in response to the trap. This let Lucy Gray Baird know a few things, but it also confirmed that things don't end well for people associated with that night Mayfair died. Snow is armed and is clearly now turning on her, like Jessup did in the Games
As for the ending, I know it's open to interpretation on purpose so there technically is no wrong answer, but I personally like to think that Lucy Gray Baird got away for a few reasons. Firstly, she survives everyone else she " snakes" (Mayfair and Treech). Secondly, she had supplies hidden away in the forest that she could have used and was a nomad. Thirdly, she said the Covey would come looking for her a few hours after noticing she was missing. I think she waited out the bullets, was found by the Covey, used the prize money for any injuries she had, left, and lived with those people rumored to have been in the woods.
I think true to the ending of the ballad that she was named after, that the memory of her, or her ghost, haunted Snow for the rest of his life through her music.
Since because he was first captivated by her beautiful voice, her music forever reminded him of the sound of Snow... falling.

Laying in bed, my hand rested on my bump. How did I end like this? Demonic and pregnant, that very statement sounding like a cheap movie title. Demy slumbered next to me, the day was ours to be had. Demy promised me a date today, and I suppose I should take it. Swinging my feet over the edge of the bed, a black box waited for me. Opening the top, my breath was stolen from me. Golden lace sparrows flew over a scarlet rockabilly dress, my shaking fingers pulling it out. Holding it to my body, the measurements were exact to me. The mattress creaked as Demy sat up, the morning sun bathing his handsome features.
“Do you like it? I ordered it a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully, it will fit.” He yawned groggily, rubbing his eyes. “I also ordered new jeans for you, considering that they won’t fit eventually. Try it on.” Tugging on my snug bra, the dress fit perfectly. Loving the way the skirt floated away from me, Demy was already dressed in a simple black dress shirt and dark jeans. His casual look threw me off, a scythe charm dangled off of his wrists. Staring at him with pure bewilderment, he tugged his hair into a neat man bun. Shrugging his shoulders, he sauntered over to me. His hungry eyes devoured me.
“I like it very much.” I stammered with a fluttering heart. Wrapping his arm around the small of my waist, his lips pressed against mine passionately. Arching my body towards him, time stopped once more. Why did this keep happening! Releasing me from his spell, his forehead pressed against mine.
“I forgot to tell you that I can disguise myself. Now I look like an albino goth.” He explained playfully, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Let me fix your hair.” Brushing through it, he twisted it into a simple side braid. Kicking over my boots, he kissed my forehead while I slid on my boots. Spinning around the room, he swung me underneath him. Smothering me in kisses, he placed me on his back. Walking downstairs, we burst out onto the busy street. People smiled at us as he took every turn to an abandoned mansion. Vines had claimed the red brick, the metal porches barely hanging on.
“I bought it for us.” He proclaimed proudly, placing his hands on his hips. “I thought it was time we got a place of our own. What do you think?” Tears welled up in my eyes, my hand falling on my bump. He didn’t have to, my other hand clenching into a tight ball. Glancing up at the top window, a lone female spirit floated in her flowing nightgown. Cocking my head, shadowy hands ripped her back. Bursting through the front door, dust covered the water damaged walls. Sprinting upstairs, my fingers curled around my staff. The stairs creaked dangerously underneath my boots, a jump in the air saving me from a painful fall as the steps crumbled. Landing on the metal railing, my boots clanged against the metal with every step. A ghost was in trouble, the scene shifting around me. Demy caught up to me, the inside of the house rewinding back in time. Pristine walls with ornate wallpaper greeted me, Demy letting out a long sigh.
“We are trapped in another time bubble.” He groaned to himself, rubbing his forehead. “We know the only way out is to kill the ghost who brought us here. This bubble reeks of something else though. Can you smell the sulfur?” Sniffing the air, he wasn’t wrong. Hiding me underneath the staircase, my breath hitched at his body pressed against mine. A man with chocolate brown hair and caramel eyes landed inches from us, blood pouring from his eyes. A child’s scream snapped me from my horror filled trance, a thirteen year old girl ran by us with her long brown waves flying behind her. A shadow figure chased after her, a jagged blade sliding through her chest. Watching the ruby drops hit the floor, the worn wooden handle became stained with her blood. Dropping to the floor, her hand reached for me. The demon snapped its head towards us, rows of bloody fangs clicked together. Spinning his blade in his palm, his wrist flicked abruptly, Demy’s back caught the blade, his scythe charm glowing red hot. Pushing the knife out with his muscles, the charm grew to its full size. Ravens cawed behind him, the bracelet turning back into his top hat. Scarlet flames twisted with golden flames, the feathers floating behind me. Cocking his head back, crazed laughter burst from his lips.
“You are going to have to find me first.” He taunted cruelly, clapping his hands. “I will never let you claim my home.” Demy narrowed his eyes in his direction, the annoyance disappearing into the floor. Coming out of our hiding spot, jazz music played outside. Creeping around the corner, my flames died down for a second. A pile of bright yellow liquid coated the spot he went through, Demy crouching down to examine it.
“He is ancient.” He grumbled under his breath, his kind gaze watched me take in the information. “The brighter the sulfur the older they are.” Feeling stupid for not understanding him, the solution wasn’t obvious to me. Shifting uncomfortably, no words came to the tip of my tongue. The ghost of the girl floated over to me, tears flowing endlessly down her cheeks. Her hair floated up behind her, her quaking hands gripping her ragged nightgown. Her milky eyes met mine, surprise rounding her eyes at my outreached hand.
“We are going to get rid of him for you. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can free you because of the whole murder thing. Maybe we can find your father.” I offered sincerely, her icy hands cupping mine. “We can turn on the television for you every now and then. I’ll even cook your favorite foods so you can smell them. The one thing you have to do is help me out. Can you do that?” The spirit of the father floated around the corner, his snow white hair danced wildly. Fixing his mustache, his milky eyes fell on us. Dusting off his suit, he cleared his throat. Holding out his hand, I gave it one good firm shake.
“I am Mr. Smillet and that is my daughter Milly. We would love to help you.” He introduced himself politely, ruffling his daughter’s hair. “Unfortunately, we can’t leave because of an eternal curse on the land but your idea sounds lovely. Let’s make this place a home once more.” Floating through the floor, his head popped up through the center of the hole.
“This is going to sound backwards but he is in the attic.” He chirped warmly, pulling himself out. “We will lead the way.” Walking past the photos of them, the nineteen twenties raged outside. Stopping at the attic door, they took a step back. Thanking them silently, we pushed the door open. Pressing our backs against the wall, the stairs creaked with every step. Glancing behind me, the door slammed shut behind us. The only light flickered, my heart seconds from beating out of my chest. Pop! A sea of darkness swallowed us, cold breezes lashing our cheeks. Summoning my flames, my heart sank into the pit of my stomach at his face inches from mine. Slamming my heel into his chest, he smashed into the wall. Climbing the stairs, I kicked a pile of boxes down the stairs. Spinning my scythe over my head, balls of flames whipped in his direction. Stopping them before they hit him, he raised his hand over his head. Hundreds of those damn daggers spun over his head, my metal feathers destroying them upon impact. Snapping his fingers, cold hands smashed through the floorboards. Slicing my palm on an exposed nail, Demy seemed to be dealing with his own problems. Smearing my hand on the wall, the scent was enough for me to summon my pets. Whistling sharply, the attic door rattled violently. Wet snarls echoed on the other side, my three pets taking him down to the ground. Pulling his gun from his pocket, Demy towered over the howling demon. Pressing his gun to his forehead, his finger tugged on the trigger. His bullet burst from the end, his body decaying to ash. My pets bounded up to me, their tails wagging a mile a minute. Rubbing their bellies, they melted into puddles.
“Who are good doggies!” I spoke with my dog mom’s voice, tongues licking my face left and right. The time bubble still remained, my eyes narrowing. Something felt off, a glowing orb bounced in the corner. Walking over to it cautiously, the ball of light floated into my clammy palm. Tears welled up in my eyes, the spirit was her mother. The real reason the time bubble existed was because of her, her soul purpose had been served. She stayed behind to protect them, one more thing stopping her.
“I need you to promise to take care of them.” She spoke gently, the orb floating in the air. “I can’t stay here because I dragged myself outside of the property line. I need to know that they will be okay.” Drops of light hit the floor, sobs bounced off the wall. Demy embraced me from behind, his chin resting on my head. Flashing the orb with his crooked grin, the drops of light slowed to a halt.
“We vow to give them a lovely afterlife. I was thinking we could give them the attic.” He promised sincerely, kissing the top of my head. “We can furnish the space as they wish. Then they can hang out with us downstairs. How does that sound?” Thinking for a minute, the orb floated into the sky. The time bubble glitched, a dusty attic greeting us. Pressing my palm to the splintered floor, a bright light blinded us. Covering his eyes, the light died down. Pristine floors brushed against my palm, a neat bedroom pleased me. The simple furniture would do, a picture of the girl's family hung on the wall. Running downstairs, the two spirits waited on the other side of the door. Opening the door for them, I motioned for them to go on up. Gasps of wonder bounced off the wall, my eyes scanning the scarlet walls. The hall seemed empty, my fingers tracing the one ancient mirror. Demy’s jaw dropped, my finger picking it up.
“If I can heal living things I can bring inanimate objects back to life.” I bragged with a wide grin, poking it to see if it was real. “I didn’t think I could do this well. We do have to get some furniture though. I could only manifest theirs because it had existed at one point. Do you like it?” Parting his lips to speak, a distraught woman sprinted in. One of our marks entered the hall, I put my foot out. Not seeing my foot, his face smashed onto the floor. Pressing my staff into his back, he put his hands up. The silky onyx hair contrasted the restored wooden floors, my three dogs surrounding him.
“If you move a fucking muscle you'll become dog chow.” I snapped hotly, flaming feathers hovered over him. “Tell me why you were cha-” My face dead panned at my former colleague charging at me with a haunted expression. Grabbing her by the arm, I tossed her over my head. The floor groaned in protest, the boards repairing themselves. Examining her closer, her eyes were ruby. Her lilac waves cascaded down her back, the white frilly Lolita dress hugged her petite body. A diamond collar sparkled on her neck, my eyes falling on the inky stain spreading on the white lace. Sniffing the air, I let them both go. A nasty bugger limped down the hall, a curved lilac blade quivered in his sludgy back. Demy raised his scythe, his ravens cawing behind him. Harsh winds blew our hair around, my flames roaring to life. Crouching down to their level, I yanked both of the heads up by their hair.
“If I help you, you join my army. No ifs, and or buts.” I barked sternly, the two of them nodding. “Sit back and watch the show.” Resting against the wall, her master fussed over her. Spinning my staff over my head, flaming feathers landed in the body. Demy leapt over my head, his scythe cutting into the body. The demon roared, horror rounding our eyes as it absorbed our power. Opening up its mouth, a wall of lilacs blocked its path. An idea came to mine, the flames of the burning lilacs illuminating my features.
“We need to hit it with everything we have.” I whispered so it wouldn’t hear, bewildered expressions meeting my determined grin. “You have trust in me.” Allowing my powers to build up at the top of my staff, Demy’s pure power built at the end of his scythe. Swinging our weapons at the same time, a rush of hot air blew our hair back. Taking the mirror off the wall, I held it in front of us. Let’s see how much power he could take. Demy held me by my hips in preparation for the impact. Absorbing the power as I had planned, a beam of our power slid us back a few feet. The beam hit him, the cracks beginning to form on his skin. Absorbing the doubled energy, he blasted the mirror again. The frame creaked, the beam striking the mirror once more. Demy held me down with all of his strength. The game of tennis continued until the energy decayed him into a pile of ash. Lowering the mirror, the house repaired itself. Demy huffed behind me, his arm spinning me around. Kissing me hungrily, he seemed grateful that I was alive. Crouching down to her level, Demy’s top hat absorbed his scythe and ravens.
“Where is she wounded? I won’t hurt her. I want to heal her.” I assured him kindly, the fellow demon taking a step back. “Do you mind?” Lifting up her dress, a nasty spike stuck out of her back. Ripping it out, she cussed like a sailor. Hovering my hand over the gaping wound, her muscle fused back together. Watching her skin patch itself, a nasty scar throbbed underneath my touch. Demy kicked her blade over, her trembling fingers gripping the worn leather hilt with raw terror.
“You must be Davidos Darth and Lilac Mattson. These two defected a couple of years ago.” Demy explained calmly, the petite woman embracing me graciously. “They were just hunted down by one of her sludgy monsters. The Golden Lion must be after you. The question is why.” A two year old girl peeked out from around the corner, her lilac waves grazing the floor. A white summer dress floated away from her body, her ruby eyes falling on me. A bright smile illuminated Lilac’s purple lips, the girl’s purple lips curling into a matching smile.
“Mommy!” She cried out, Lilac tossing me to the floor as she caught her daughter. “I am glad you are safe. I hid in my invisibility bubble like you told me too. Who is the pretty lady?” Crouching down to her level, I held out my hand.
“I am Scarlet Deaclon, your mother’s best friend. How do you feel about living here? Is that alright with your mother?” I inquired sweetly, her face lighting up. “I can’t have you guys running like that. I will put a protection spell on the house if it makes you feel better. Us defectors have to stick together.” Silent tears stained Lilac’s cheek, Davidos seemed seconds from crying.
“Seriously, I can’t have you guys on the street. Fight with me and we can have a miniature family.” I continued jovially, ruffling the girl’s beautiful hair. “I can also babysit if you need it.” Lilac began to sob, several fresh cuts and bruises caught my eyes.
“Why are you being so nice?” She wept softly, wiping away her tears. “I don’t deserve it. We left in s-” Putting my hand in the air, confusion mixed with sadness. Cupping her face, she quaked underneath my touch.
“She is the best reason to leave.” I comforted her kindly, my three dogs bounding up to the little girl. “Don’t worry they don’t bite. What’s her name?” Oreo, Stripes, and Darkness smothered her in love, the girl's giggles twinkled in the air. The four of them played as Davidos helped Lilac to her feet, Demy pacing back and forth. An irritated growl rumbled in his throat, a hand on his shoulder calming him down. He had to know that we needed allies, his lips brushing against the top of my head. Fishing around his pocket, a worn pocket knife sat in my palm. Cutting the blade across my palm, my eyes watched the blood pool. Drawing a powerful protection spell on the wall, the house rattled the moment I slammed my palm onto the wall. A golden dome hummed to life around the house. Mouthing a silent spell, five necklaces appeared in my palms. Golden feathers dangled off of the golden chains, no words being said as I passed them out.
“These will protect you when you leave the house.” I informed them with my real smile, dropping the necklace over the little girl’s head. “This should increase your ability to become invisible.” Clearing her throat, she stood in the attention position. Holding her head up high, Demy grinned at her proud stance.
“I am Lavender.” She introduced herself boldly, cupping my hands. “I vow to be your ally.” Chuckling softly to myself, my hand fell to my stomach absentmindedly. Hoping my kid was this awesome, hope glittered in her eyes. Demy spun me on my heels, placing my necklace over my head. Hooking his elbow in mine, he glanced back with concern.
“We are going to pick up some grub. Is pizza okay?” He asked with his crooked grin, their heads nodding. “We will be right back.” Guiding me out the door, our neighbors stared at us long and hard. Waving to them, they waved back awkwardly. Letting the moonlight bathe me, he spun me around. Holding me by the small of my waist, scarlet colored my cheeks.
“Did you see that adorable little girl? Do you think ours will be as awesome?” He mused playfully, kissing my lips feverishly. A goofy look dawned on my face, the feather necklace I made glittered on his shirt. Following my gaze, he fiddled with the magical charm.
“I would be a fool not to wear what my wife made for me.” He continued happily, his hand sliding down to my slight bump. Getting onto his knees, his lips brushed against the surface. Hugging my bump, a deeper crimson rose to my cheeks. People watched with warm smiles, the older couples holding each other tighter. Rising to his feet, he hooked his elbow in mine. Making me feel like the lead in a romance novel, pride swelled in his eyes. Walking me to the local pizza place, a warmth came over me. A shadow figure darted in the distance, the serenity leaving my mind. What the hell was that?

Seriously what the fuck is wrong with my brain. Why am I thinking of u? I'm listening to music that makes me daydream and think, and I come back to u?
Why should my thoughts drift back to u? Oh yeah that's right cause u ghosted me and left me hanging a 2nd time.
Left my heart in knots and pain, crushed instead of just being straight with me.
It's been over a year, one year and four months to be more precise.
I no longer care that I didn't mean much to u, that I was just a random fantasy woman, probably one of many, I accepted that long ago.
But believe it or not I loved u unconditionally with no expectations other than simple honesty.
Shit the same, I'm over it now, but still I guess u penetrate my heart and mind when the mood takes me.
Silly blue eyed wolf, will always wish u had been straight with me, my doors always open and I am approachable, not to rekindle, just whatever, clear the air.
Love ❤ T

Me and my family live in a two story house and after living there for a year we thought we had a ghost. we named them Dwayne not knowing what they were or who they were. Now that we have been living here for 4 years I have been having so experiences. As in hearing noises and doors opening by themselves all why either being the only one upstairs or being home alone. We try not to disrespect spirits. The only jokes we make is just saying Dwayne is following us around the house. Can I get any advice on what to do??
I’ve tried talking to the ghost saying they could hang out with me and mess with my stuff and idk if that’s dumb or not. I just need some opinions and I will answer the comments. What should I do???

Hi! Our inner world is the hotel from Sims 2 ds. whoever is fronting is in the lobby, we all have our own rooms where we get to decorate and hang out (the two kids share a room because they're cute like that). Sam, our gatekeeper, hangs out in reception if she wants to be cocon. We have some space outside the hotel, a desert, a shop, but we don't tend to go out there much.
I feel like it's strange. I was just wondering if anyone was willing to share what theirs is like? It's such a unique and personal thing but I'm interested.

Please help furnish bedroom without closets
My dad converted part of one of the living rooms into a temporary bedroom for me but doesn’t want to add closets since it’s a lot of work for him. I’m trying to figure out how to have all my stuff out on display without it looking cheap but having difficulty with the room layout. I have a lot of clothes and a decent amount of shoes/bags. I also have a 55 inch desk and a large standing mirror. I don’t mind removing the desk if there’s a more efficient/better looking alternative. 2nd photo is after the wall was added, the rest are before since I don’t have current photos (ignore clutter please). Last pic is potential inspo. I probably have 3-4 times as many clothes as hanging in that photo 😅 I also have this IKEA bed frame that I don’t mind changing to something else