A- Now I feel MOTIVATED!

(a worldbuilding roast. with love.)

So. You’re building a fantasy world, and you’ve just invented: → Three types of ceremonial jewelry → A spice that tastes like cinnamon if it were bitter and cursed → A holiday where everyone wears gold and screams at dawn

Cute. But that’s not culture. That’s aesthetics.

And if your worldbuilding is all outfits, dances, and spice blends with vaguely mystical names, your story’s probably going to feel like a cosplay convention held inside a Pinterest board.

Here’s how to fix that—aka: how to build a real, functioning culture that shapes your story, not just its vibes.

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🔗 Culture Is Built on Power, Not Just Style

Ask yourself: → Who’s in charge, and why? → Who has land? Who doesn’t? → What’s considered taboo, sacred, or punishable by death?

Culture is shaped by who gets to make the rules and who gets crushed by them. That’s where things like religion, family structure, class divisions, gender roles, and social expectations actually come from.

Start there. Not at the embroidery.

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2.🪓 Culture Comes From Conflict

Did this society evolve peacefully? Was it colonized? Did it colonize? Was it rebuilt after a war? Is it still in one?

→ What was destroyed and mythologized? → What do the survivors still whisper about? → What do children get taught in school that’s… suspiciously sanitized?

No culture is neutral. Every tradition has a history, and that history should taste like blood, loss, or propaganda.

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3.🧠 Belief Systems > Customs Lists

Sure, rituals and holidays are cool. But what do people believe about: → Death? → Love? → Time? → The natural world? → Justice?

Example: A society that believes time is cyclical vs. one that sees time as linear will approach everything—from prison sentences to grief—completely differently.

You don’t need to invent 80 gods. You need to know what those gods mean to the people who pray to them.

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4.🫀 Culture Controls Behavior (Quietly)

Culture shows up in: → What people apologize for → What insults cut deepest → What people are embarrassed about → What’s praised publicly vs. what’s hidden privately

For instance: → A culture obsessed with stoicism won’t say “I love you.” They’ll say “Have you eaten?” → A culture built on legacy might prioritize ancestor veneration, archival writing, name inheritance.

This stuff? Way more immersive than giving everyone matching earrings.

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5. 🏠 Culture = Daily Life, Not Just Festivals

Sure, your MC might attend a funeral where people paint their faces blue. But what about: → Breakfast routines? → How people greet each other on the street? → Who cooks, and who eats first? → What’s considered “clean” or “proper”? → How is parenting handled? Divorce?

Culture is what happens between plot points. It should shape your character’s assumptions, language, fears, and habits—whether or not a festival is going on.

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6. 💬 Let Your Characters Disagree With Their Own Culture

A culture isn’t a monolith.

Even in deeply traditional societies, people: → Rebel → Question → Break rules → Misinterpret laws → Mock sacred things → Act hypocritically → Weaponize or resist what’s expected

Let your characters wrestle with the culture around them. That’s where realism (and tension) lives.

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7.🧼 Beware the “Pretty = Good” Trap

Worldbuilding gets boring fast when: → The protagonist’s homeland is beautiful and pure → The enemy’s culture is dark and “barbaric” → Every detail just reinforces who the reader should like

You can—and should—challenge the aesthetic hierarchy. → Let ugly things be beloved. → Let beautiful things be corrupt. → Let your MC romanticize their culture and then get disillusioned by it later.

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📍 TL;DR (but like, spicy): → Culture is not food and jewelry. → Culture is power, fear, memory, contradiction. → Stop inventing spices until you know who starved last winter. → Let your world feel lived in, not curated.

The best cultural worldbuilding doesn’t look like a list. It feels like a system. A pressure. A presence your characters can’t escape—even if they try.

Now go. Build something real. (You can add spices later.)

—rin t. // writing advice for worldbuilders with rage and range // thewriteadviceforwriters

Sometimes the problem isn’t your plot. It’s your first 5 pages. Fix it here → 🖤 Free eBook: 5 Opening Pages Mistakes to Stop Making:

🕯️ download the pack & write something cursed:

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

A guide to designing wheelchair using characters!

[start ID 2: a white background with the text "STANDARD CHAIRS" at the top left corner, far bigger than the rest of the text, and in a light blue color.

Under it in a dark blue color is text which reads "STANDARD CHAIRS ARE EASY TO OBTAIN, CHEAPER CHAIRS WHICH COME IN STANDARD SIZES, SO USUALLY DONT PERFECTLY FIT THE USER"

Under it is text in light blue once more, which reads "SELF PROPEL"

"THIS CHAIR CAN BE MOVED INDEPENDENTLY BUT IS OFTEN BULLY AND THEREFORE HARD TO MOVE" next to the text is an arrow pointing at a drawing of a black person sitting on a wheelchair which fits the earlier description. The person is grinning while looking to the side and resting their elbows on the arm rests of the chair.

On the left side of the image is text in light blue which reads "TRANSIT CHAIR" under it in smaller size is "SOMEONE ELSE WOULD PUSH THIS" next to the text an arrow points to a drawing of a transit chair

Next to the chair there's more light blue text with an arrow pointing at the chairs handles saying "HIGH HANDLES"

Under the chair is text in dark blue which reads "CONSIDER HOW YOUR CHARACTER MIGHT CUSTOMIZE THEIR WHEELCHAIR. THESE CHAIRS ARE USUALLY DARK COLOURS, SO THINK ABOUT EASY PERSONALISATIONS SUCH AS STICKERS, AND SPOKE SKINS"

Below is a drawing of a small area of the same wheelchair the person was sitting on, right under the chairs arm rests, with some decorative stickers, aswell as a purple sticker that says "CRIPPLE PUNK"

Next to the drawing is light blue text with an arrow pointing to the drawing, which reads "WHEELCHAIRS CAN MATCH YOUR OCS VIBES" /End ID 2.]

[start ID 3: big purple text on the top left of a white background which reads "SOME PEOPLE NEED MORE SUPPORT IN A STANDARD CHAIR"

Under it is smaller text in darker purple, which reads "SOME USERS NEED EXTRAS ON THEIR CHAIRS TO SUPPORT THEM, SUCH AS HEAD RESTS, AND BELTS. SOME USERS MAY USE 'TILT IN SPACE' CHAIRS. THIS IS ALL DEPENDANT ON FACTORS SUCH AS CORE STRENGTH, AND SEATING NEEDS, SO CONSIDER HOW YOUR CHARACTER IS EFFECTED BY THEIR CONDITION WHEN DECIDING THE RIGHT CHAIR FOR THEM"

On the left side of the purple text is a drawing of a pale person in a wheelchair, their arms are resting on the armrests, they're they're grinning with their eyes closed. The wheelchair has a head rest on it, with text beside it pointing towards it which reads "HEAD REST"

Under the drawing is big text in light purple which reads "FOOT PROPELLING"

under it is smaller text in a darker purple, saying "SOME USERS USE THEIR FEET OR TOES TO HELP PROPEL THEMSELVES, AND ACCOMODATE THIS BY REMOVING THE FOOTPLATES ON THEIR CHAIRS"

Next to the text is a drawing of the lower side of a wheelchair with what seems to be the same person from earlier sitting on it, the chair has a belt tightened around them, and the footplates are removed, both these factors are pointing out with light purple text pointing towards them. The person's feet seem to be moving to propel themselves /End ID 3]

[start ID 4: a white background with big orange text at the top left, which reads "ACTIVE CHAIRS" under it is smaller text in a darker orange, saying "ACTIVE LIGHTWEIGHT WHEELCHAIRS ARE BESPOKE CHAIRS MADE TO ALLOW THE USER TO PROPEL THEMSELVES WITH AS MUCH INDEPENDENCE AS POSSIBLE. DUE TO BEING TOTALLY CUSTOMISED TO THE USER, THEY ARE EXPENSIVE AND LESS ACCESSIBLE THAN STANDARD CHAIRS"

Next to the text is a drawing of a pale person in a wheelchair, they're smiling and making a peace sign with their hand, besides the drawing is orange text with an arrow pointing at the drawing which reads "RIGID CHAIR",other text which points towards the side of the wheelchair says "CUSTOME COLOURS" the color of the side of the chair is purple.

Under that is small dark orange text which says "THERE ARE ALSO DIFFERENT TYPES OF WHEELS FOR CHAIRS, WITH DIFFERENT PRICE POINTS AND DIFFERENT QUALITIES THAT PEOPLE MAY NEED OR WANT"

Below the text is a drawing of two wheels, a wheel with three wavey spokes, and a wheel with alot of straight spokes. Next to the drawing the word "WHEELS" is written.

Back on the left side, under the orange text explaining active lightweight wheelchairs, is orange big text which reads "GLOVES"

Under it is a drawing of three wheelchair gloves, one covers the entire thumb, but is fingerless on the rest of the fingers.

One covers the entire hand like a standard glove.

One is fingerless.

Under the drawing is small text in dark orange which reads "WHEELCHAIR GLOVES ARE LIKE MARMITE: SOME PEOPLE LOVE THEM SOME PEOPLE HATE THEM" /End ID 4.]

[start ID 5: a white background, with big green text on it that reads "STANDARD ELECTRIC"

Under it is smaller dark green text which says "STANDARD ELECTRIC CHAIRS ARE POWER CHAIRS THAT COME IN PRESET SIZES, SO THEY MIGHT NOT BE A PERFECT FIT BUT BUT CAN BE LESS EXPENSIVE THAN ACTIVE CHAIRS, AND EASIER FOR THE USER TO BE INDEPENDENT THAN A STANDARD MANUAL CHAIR. THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT VARIATIONS OF STANDARD ELECTRIC CHAIRS, TO FIT DIFFERENT NEEDS"

Next to the text is a drawing of a side facing person in a hijab, sitting on a standard electric wheelchair.

Under the text is a drawing of a standard electric wheelchair, with small dark green text next to it that explains "CHAIRS CAN COME IN DIFFERENT COLOURS, WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PORTABILITY, AND POSTURAL SUPPORT. LIKE WITH ALL CHAIRS, USERS CAN BE FULL TIME, OR AMBULATORY (PART TIME) /End ID 5.]

[start ID 6: white background with big pink text at the top right which reads "BESPOKE POWERCHAIRS"

Under it is smaller text in darker pink which says "SIMILAR TO SELF PROPEL WHEELCHAIRS, ELECTRIC/POWER CHAIRS CAN BE MADE TO THE EXACT MEASUREMENTS TO THE USER, WITH ELEMENTS ADDED TO AID POSTURE AND STABILITY IF NEEDED. THESE CHAIRS TEND TO BE EXPENSIVE.

Next to the text is a sketch of an empty wheelchair fitting the description, the drawing is on the left of the image.

Under the text is a drawing of a person on a wheelchair, smiling and staring to the side. Their arms are resting on the armrests of their wheelchair. There is text next to the wheelchair, pointing at the arm rests which says "ARM RESTS", there is text under the chair which reads "CUSTOM COLOURS", parts near the chairs wheels are colored blue, aswell as the fenders that are covering the top of the wheels.

Next to the drawing of the person, under the drawing of the empty wheelchair on the left, is big pink text which reads "JOYSTICKS"

Under it is small dark pink text which reads "JOYSTICKS USED TO CONTROL THE CHAIR CAN BE CUSTOMISED TO THE STYLE AND NEEDS OF THE USER"

Under it is a drawing of two joysticks, the first joystick is a none-traditional looking type of joystick due to its unique grip, while the second one is a traditional joystick with a ball grip /End ID 6]

[start ID 7: white background with big red text at the top which reads "AMBULATORY USERS"

Under it is three drawings of a brown person with a below the knee amputation in one leg, in the first drawing they're grinning while sitting in an orange wheelchair, in the second they're standing while using crutches, in the third they're walking using a prosthetic.

Under the art is small dark red text which reads "OUT OF THE 12 MILLION WHEELCHAIR USERS IN THE UK, A THIRD ARE AMBULATORY USERS, MEANING THEY ARE ABLE TO WALK TO SOME DEGREE/UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES. IT'S TOTALLY POSSIBLE FOR YOUR CHARACTER TO BE A PART TIME WHEELCHAIR USER, AND VARY WHICH MOBILITY AIDS ARE USED." /End ID 7]

[start ID 8: a white background with dark orange text at the top right which reads "SUMMARY"

Under it is smaller lighter orange text which says "THIS ISNT A TOTALLY COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE AND THERE ARE DEFINITELY FACTS I'VE FORGOTTEN, THIS CAN BE A START FOR THOSE TOTALLY CLUELESS ON DESIGNING WHEELCHAIR USERS. RESEARCH IS THE BEST WAY FORWARD IF YOU HAVE BITS YOU HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT. WHEELCHAIR USERS' EXPERIENCES ARE THE BEST RESEARCH!"

Next to the text is a drawing of a wheelchair.

Under the drawing is big dark orange text which reads "HOWEVER" under it is lighter smaller orange text continuing "DON'T JUST GO ASKING WHEELCHAIR USERS AND DISABLED PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER OR INVASIVE QUESTIONS FOR YOUR RESEARCH, THEY AREN'T HERE JUST TO GIVE YOU INFORMATION. THERE ARE LOADS OF ALREADY EXISTING INFORMATION FROM WHEELCHAIR USERS ONLINE."

Next to the text is a drawing of a person in pigtails and sunglasses making a finger guns jesture while grinning.

All the text in every single image has been in all caps, and the images are watermarked with the username of the Tumblr user who posted this comic, @ cowsabungus /End ID 8.]

I wake. Ashes fill my cup. A million machines tear at the earth. A million trees crash to the ground, scattering critters into homeless oblivion. A million children hike down into the mine pit, hearts hollow. Another dozen species go extinct. The temperature raises imperceptibly. The oceans roil, black acid and plastic, and oxygen dissolves. The world turns, and hurtles through the void to its inevitable grave, and I stare at the roof, and pretend I don’t remember. That’s how the game is played.

I limp outside to pass water on my favourite tree. I don’t turn my head. There are privacy fences on all sides, a box just for me. A prison where I can be myself. That too, is a game. The neighbours can all see just fine from their windows. I can’t be too much myself. I light a cigarette, and feel the fog lift from my brain. One step closer to the death I crave. I have a mine of my own, and I am digging for silence.

I play a song from a dead artist, no older than me. Someone somewhere makes a transaction, trading a name and a logo for enough money to invade Germany. Iran is invaded instead. Children with missing limbs sit alone and hungry in the street by a sign with a wry joke on it. A factory worker loses his job to a machine, just hours after he passed up union membership. He has worked his whole life and has made nothing but debt. He’ll still vote for the people who did it to him. He has integrity, after all.

I feel the sick twist in my gut of the timeline peeling away. Another day, another step away from my dream. Another day, another twitter argument about abortion rights or immigrant detention scrolls past on my wall. Peace and love, my soul cries, in defeated wails. Peace and love for all. An elderly woman sits alone in her empty house, and no one notices her breath stop.

I drink deeply of wine, but my cup is full of ashes. People sit by me, speaking in comforting voices, begging me to want something out of life. Begging me to want to live. I gaze out the window at the planted trees in neat rows, the brick body works, the bitumen with painted lines. Exhaust spews from the traffic. The birdsong grows fainter. Instead, the air is full of silent signals from a thousand different devices. In the space between, the universe watches, silent, judging.

I drink deeply of wine, but my cup is full of ashes. I sit alone and cradle my hands in my lap. I feel the cold seeping into me. There is a strange romance to how sad I feel. How much I yearn. Somewhere, someone is talking about the invisible hand of the market and the drive of profit incentive. Somewhere, oil is leaking into a native community’s only water source. Somewhere, irradiated material is being lowered into the earth. Somewhere, a sixteen-year-old is posting his manifesto and loading an automatic rifle.

I drink deeply of wine, but my cup is full of ashes. Someone is damning someone else to hell. Someone has blocked their old friend on facebook. Someone is bringing a hammer down on their wife’s face.

How to Improve your writing

This is something that happens every day in your life. A shift of your eyebrow in skepticism, or the way your lip may twitch to a half smile cause you’re trying not to laugh. These behaviors are vital for writing in character, because not only do the allow you to visually see what is happening but it is also reaffirming whatever emotion your character is showing.

So why should you write it?

Much of human communication is non-verbal which means you need to also translate this non-verbal reaction in a post. It allows you to greatly enhance the emotions of another character and always another person to ‘visually’ see how they feel in a post. Most of all, this will add depth and volume to your post to make it feel more real. IT will make your character feel like a human instead of just another fictional person you look at from above.

Below you will find a list different type of emotions and what sort of body language can be exhibited to them.

Three ways to accent an action.

When writing about emotions, there are different ways to verbally write them out. Each one is unique in their own way, allowing you to show more about the emotion.

Emphasize the Emotion. But doing this, you are expressing both the emotion and the body language. We’ll use a simple example. It’s short and simple yet you can sense he is happy. John felt so happy that he was humming a tune while walking down the hall.

Complicate the Emotion. Sometimes, even when you are feeling one emotion, deep down rooted underneath the facade of it all, there is actually an underlining emotion they feel. This is something you have to truly express otherwise no one will know. John felt so happy that he was humming a tune while walking down the hall. However, it was obvious by the way his nose crinkled that he was disgusted by the actions beforehand. Instead, John covered it up by appearing pleased today.

Contradict the Emotion. This is a little different than complicate. Contradicting means that you are claiming one thing when in fact its the other. In many ways, this has a variety of uses, from inner depth of the truth to what you see in person, or someone creating a wall. It could be considered a lie, but when is anything that easy? John felt so happy that he was humming a tune while walking down the hall. In truth, once he was in the classroom, his shoulders slumped and a pout crossed his lips when no one was around, showing just how displeased he was with the situation.

Remember that you do not always have to contradict or complicate anything. Sometimes all you need to do is emphasize and that will be just fine. You don’t always have to have an underlining complicated for an emotion to make it more enhanced.

Do be afraid to use the Thesaurus to also improve an emotion. Such things as “happy” is a nice emotional word, but think of how much more powerful it is when you heard some is “overjoyed” or “content.” She how these emotions matched up with a body language can give two different styles of happiness? Mix and match to find what works best for your character at the time.

More In Depth Information

What I’ve stated above is more of a simplistic overview. IF you truly want to improve yourself, go to this

LINK HERE

To see just how much body language can reveal about a person. You will find things such as how a person lies, how the eyes reaction, the positioning of a person in personal space, mouth, and head body language and so much more.

You look down from your reflection in the bathroom mirror, which you are using in lieu of the proper dressing mirror that is still in storage, and peel back the collar of your shirt to look at your shoulder. The words, 'Are you alright?' leer back at you, as they always have. What trauma those words have brought you. What a twisted mockery of a life you have lived, walking on eggshells, always with your shoulders back and your head held high.

When you were young, every time you heard the words your heart would soar. You didn't yet understand that they had to be the first words you heard, just that hearing them meant you had met your true love. You thought you were supposed to marry your uncle for a time, to his embarrassment. Then your friend Kyle. Your doctor, a lady named Kim. At some point you got it into your head that the only way it would work is if you strategically arranged yourself on the floor in a walkway, and moaned in pain. You met your first boyfriend that way, a seventh grader with misshapen teeth who had the unfortunate nickname of Bucky. You felt so, so clever, like you had cheated destiny, and threw yourself wholeheartedly into the relationship.

Bucky's family moved to France the next week. You never even got to learn his real name, or what his words were.

You were devastated of course; you screamed and you threw things and you locked yourself in your room, but in the end you told yourself that it was because you faked it, and resolved to wait for the real thing.

Two years later, you sprained your ankle and a football player named Bryce said the words. You said 'Hi', in response, and he grinned and showed you that that was his word. Years later, you would learn that a large majority of the population had some variation of 'Hi' or 'Hello', but you were a young girl and it seemed to you as good as if your very name was scrawled across his hip.

Bryce was abusive, and controlling, and more than once pressured you into doing things with him that you didn't feel ready for. You couldn't believe that fate had paired you with such a person, but the words matched, so it must be true. Surely he would grow into a kind and mature man, if you just waited it out.

Then he hit you.

You were outside his house, cradling your bloody face, when one of his friends came up and said the words. You screamed, and ran, and after that day you resolved to never let anyone see you in weakness again.

These last few years have been the hardest and most emotionally taxing in your life. And after all of it, you still found yourself in the arms of the worst kind of...

That, too, is over now. That is why you are here. You crossed the entire country to get away from that jerk. And now you are starting your new life.

You pull yourself out of your trance and fix your hair one last time, before grabbing your purse and heading for the door. Your footsteps echo through the empty house.

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"What I do is I keep a ledger of all the matches I've met," says Shane, gesturing with his wine. "I'm going to wait until I'm forty, and then contact them all to see who hasn't been paired off. Until then, it's all casual sex with no strings attached."

His brother Axel makes a face of distaste, clearly rehearsed, and you smile quietly at their antics. Both brothers are gay, but couldn't be any more different. Shane is bearded, wears a crop shirt that proudly displays his voluminous belly, and speaks in a dramatic and booming timbre. Axel dresses sharply in dress pants and a vest, has hair out of a shaving commercial, and has two kids with his partner Lucius (who he met in line at a bank).

It was their mother, Rebecca, who arranged the event, and who now presides over the cooler, policing who takes what and in which quantity. Their father and her husband passed away some ten years ago, and his last words were the first words he ever said to her: 'What a delight to the eyes you are'. She did not respond with her own first words, which Shane confided were 'Get lost, creep'.

Nobody knew what the youngest, Gail, had as her words, and the same went for their cousin Arthur. Both wandered past at different points in the night, and responded to your 'Hi' with nothing but a sullen look (Gail) and wide-eyed terror (Arthur). Neither were particularly social creatures, for very different reasons.

Arthur's parents, Clive and Siren, each had Sean Scott's famous line on their arm: "Write your own words," a phrase that ended, "and love will find its way." They were at one of his shows in London, where he spoke about escaping the fate of the words to make your own relationships and find a more genuine happiness. They both died in the shooting that followed, an attack carried out by the now-notorious Hunter McCloud who thought their lifestyle was unnatural and insulting to God. Soon after, it came to light that all who had died at the event had Scott's words on their bodies, which sparked a decade-long debate about the nature of love and what it meant to be soul-bound to someone.

You gave some polite insight as to your own thoughts on the matter (that it was all a cosmic joke and you didn't care if you ever found out what the words meant), but the mood had definitely been spoiled and you had drank too much anyway. So you say your farewells, and return to your empty house to sleep fully clothed on your air mattress.

You wake to a knocking at your door, and sure enough it's the boys, with Gail standing off to one side focusing intently on her phone. You explain that the truck won't arrive for another hour, pawing at your face to rub some feeling into it, and Shane grins and reveals that they've brought breakfast.

You leave them to "set the table" and slip into the bathroom to change, and only now realise that you went to bed with makeup on. Dealing with that becomes its own ordeal, because you don't seem to have packed all the essentials in your toiletry bag, but you make do with a little elbow grease and a lot of cussing. When you emerge, your face is pink from scrubbing, but there are crepes and strawberries and good company waiting.

Conversation is much lighter than at the party; they explain where the nearest hardware store is, who your representative is and what her policies are like, how well the junior soccer team is doing. Young Arthur keeps his eyes down and his mouth shut, but Gail occasionally turns her phone over to provoke a discussion on some post about a recipe or home remedy. You lose track of the conversation multiple times, and feel yourself just basking in the warmth of their closeness and community. It's not something you ever got from your own family.

In not time at all, you hear the truck pull up outside and let out a groan.

-----------

You've been moving boxes and furniture for the better part of an hour (though really, you've done more directing than actual carrying) when a commotion breaks out at the front of the house. You share a look with Arthur, who looks like a deer in headlights, and make your way out. As you pass Gail, you give her an enquiring look, to which she rolls her eyes and says, "Some asshole."

And there he is, slightly obscured by Axel, the love of your life and the scourge of it. Lee. The whole reason you moved across country to this sea of suburbs, despite liking your job very much, thank you sir. He's even skinnier, somehow, and he looks ridiculous in his depression beard. But he looks so earnest in his desperation...

You sigh and move to intercede, feeling your stomach turn hard and heavy.

-----------

You're in tears, because of course you are, that's the only way these things ever end. You're sitting at the back of the garden with your shoes off and three unopened beers beside you. You hear the soft sound of a gentle approach and wipe snot from your face.

"Are you alright?"