Balina!! @Balina@cybre.space

(Redrafted; there was a small mistake that has now been rectified)

A big thanks to @goomy for putting this together. It's primarily for use on Discord and the like, where it'll animate while I'm talking, but it's important to know that I only stop talking so I can laugh.

I haven't been playing this as much as I was a month ago, but still poking and picking at things, and to my surprise, @distressedegg decided to doodle my character for a sketch slot, looking both rad and rude.

Of course, the magic of sketching is that you don't have to draw the absolutely ridiculous amount of containers all over her body. There are even more pouches and stuff you can't see, including in her stockings, her push-up bra (yes, that's why the game calls out how nice her tits are), and the knives in her boots. Wizards use a lot of tools, and she walks around loaded for bear like a good murderhobo MMO protagonist. Her upbringing in Ankh-Morpork left her with an entire platter of chips *and* fish on her shoulder, and now she's everyone's problem.

The Unseen University is much more chill about letting women in these days, but she's still pretty sure the admissions staff simply didn't clock her as a lady that day. She tends to overcompensate a tad as a result.

I chopped down the dahlia tuber mass, hoping dearly I didn't screw it up. There are two backups that returned to the vermiculite for now. Left these tubers together as one was closer to the sprouted eye, while the other was already putting out long roots. Godspeed, little twober!

Planted all six of the mint varieties last week; four have already sprouted.

Of the five zinnia seeds, three sprouted. Nice

I am also crazy proud of this little lavender. It already feels better than the earlier attempts, and I hope the new soil mix (and lowered watering) help.

Current statuses
Aerogarden: oh my god peppermint is a weed it's gonna take over cut it back cut it back.
OH GOD IT'S IN THE WATER TOO
Still learning how much it takes to make tea. It turns out you gotta use a lot more than you think.

That was a Wilhelm scream in text and you cannot tell me otherwise.

The back half, in which a cougar is tempted.

There's going to be an epilogue to this later, but scheduling has been tricky with the artist.

🎨: @goattrain
Original link: https://twitter.com/goattrain_art/status/1371855957521747970

A comic I've had knocking around in the back of my head for a while now, finally realized.

If you don't know who Stephanie is, you might want to see this short Twitter thread, first. The comic only makes sense if you know that these are just things she *does*: https://twitter.com/wolfcau/status/1371658614302248962

🎨: @goattrain
Original link: https://twitter.com/goattrain_art/status/1371855637412466695

Gathering supplies, slowly but surely. Once I decide what all I'm growing, I can start in earnest, but I found a planter that should do well for the dahlias this year. The one on the left is the one she used last year. It's not very fancy, but let's be honest, I doubt Dahlia wants to be upstaged by her own pot, y'know?

Prep work is beginning, albeit slowly.

It took a few extra days, but the newest lavender is now sitting in a 6" terracotta pot in a mixture of 2 parts standard potting soil to 1 part perlite. This should be a far nicer medium for it, less prone to compacting and overwatering.

And to my absolute surprise, I did not, in fact, kill the dahlia tuber! Hey, there, gorgeous. I'm dropping the tuber mass into a bag of soil for a couple of days, as I still need to get bigger pots. I'm honestly not sure how or if to divide the mass, though!

Dunno why *that* took me so long...

Daily affirmations

The columbine and aubriettas are just hanging around, probably ready to plant for real. The lavender seedling I'd been growing just in case is going to get some wonderful treatment tomorrow.

The sempervivum is, well. It's vibing, I guess. Nothing to say there.

Beyond this, it's almost time to start preparing for spring. I know a lot more than I did last time, and I intend on growing some real nice stuff outside, but we'll do updates on that when I've actually got stuff to show. Hopefully, the dahlia tubers survived okay, and I can get a decent price on a handful of whiskey barrel planters so the balcony can have some lovely greenery done right the first time around.

The lavenders are... honestly, the original three aren't doing great. I think they got over-watered, and the soil they were planted in was a poor choice. One of the three may be okay? It put out new leaves lately, but the other two... not so good.

The aerogarden is doing... well, two out of three ain't bad. I overpruned the parsley, so I think the shock made the rest just fall over. Whoops. However, check out the peppermint, and the GIANT blooms on the petunia!

Unsurprisingly, thanks to it being winter, I didn't really think too much about updating this thread. Let's see where we are today.

The petunia plants on my desk are *thriving*. I actually had to remove a couple of branches that were all the way down to the floor last month!

Spent a solid hour or two today just removing dead blooms and broken leaves. The downside to having a billion blooms is having to remove a billion deadheads, I guess.

Some of the branches are becoming these beautifully intricate little dense things. Also, both plants are sneakily getting a branch or two through the blinds and setting up outposts out there. It's absolutely adorable, but I fear what'll happen when those blooms start to fade and I have to just cut the whole thing off.

This seems like the worst idea I've had in a while, but I *do* need a warm coat for the winter.

GLADLY

I want to eat the candy on top of this moogle SO BAD.