The Housefly Chronicles:

Following is a collection of tales that I've had with my little fly friends, beginning in 2021. Of earlier ages, I've always grown up around houseflies. We accepted them crawling on you, all land on your leg, little tickley. Eat the salt. And they clean themselves, like constantly! Probably more than a cat

So anyways, fly stories! Written chronologically from earliest to latest.

August 30, 2021

When one of these little guys takes to you. He's been exploring me for a few hours, comes back after I move around or get something. Lol, I think that when they've found that they can crawl on your face, they consider you friend

November 14, 2021

Tales of a housefly

Have you ever had a housefly that was just so happy with his spot on you, that he literally got angry when you moved? A short story.

So this one housefly, he had learned that I was friend, and actually pretty quickly, discovered that *inside the palm of my hand* was like the warmest spot in the world. Just a naturally sitting hand, kinda 2/3rds closed, and he went and crawled in there, parking himself right along one of the crease lines. Yah, inside my 2/3ds closed hand (now THATS trust!)

So, as is natural requirement, ones hand isn't exactly fond of absolute nonmotion for extended periods of time, you want to stretch your fingers, move a muscle, anything. And this little guy was happy in there. It was warm! It was dark. The big safe thing was protecting it. Win win!

Now I held on as long as my poor begging-to-twitch hands could bear, and opened my hand after a bit. He just sat there still, three legs in the crease. Just chilling. Me, knowing that this would not last, tried nudging him out. He budged a bit, but was adamant. I gently half-closed my hand again for another few minutes. Naturally, I could only keep motionless for like half the time and opened it again. I tried nudging him again, and he flew up for a second, then *straight back down* onto the hand, same spot. He *liked* that spot.

AAAAAAUUUGGGHHH, I cannot remain motionless forever!

I gave him a bit more time, my poor hand aching. Finally, I opened it again and poked him once more. He FLEW UP in a huff, literally SWATTED my other arm by flying into me as hard as he could, then landed on my wrist just... perturbed. I apologized to him profusely (as I did through all of this lol), and he just sat there on my arm, his "warm cozy spot" not being available any more.

I AM SO SORRY LITTLE ONE! My muscles are unable to handle nonmotion for that length of time, and I didn't wanna squish your little feet that were tucked so deeply in my hand creases!

I'm pretty sure that one stayed with me for another few days (window is always left open in summer), and just hung around until he galavanted off into the outdoors again. He likely kept landing on me off and on until then, most of the flies that came in did. They saw another housefly treat me as friend, shoot go land on that thing too! Lick the salt off my skin or whatever (they weren't biters).

Had about a dozen flies stay for several days this summer, so I have more tales if you're curious. The one that played hide and seek, the ones that got brave enough to land on my nose and forehead. That one guy one day landed *directly on my closed eyelid*, which I swear was a flex of "woah, check it out, I can land ON THIS THING'S EYEBALL!"

I have one little guy with me now, escaped the cold. It began snowing a few days after he came in, and he won't go back out the window now. It's taken this one a few days, but he's flying close to me often now, and follows me from room to room sometimes.

November 21, 2021

I appear to be up to four pet flies now lol. It's below zero out, has been for a week, but three days ago the third one made an appearance, and just today I spotted a fourth!

I'm assuming they're finding my place through the humidity from the bath in the vents? I'm not sure, but they're finding a friendly place lol.

Two of them are comfortable enough to regularly come near me, the new ones still need to warm up to me lol. They usually do faster when they see from the others that it's safe. None of them fly away when I'm near though and talking to them, so I imagine they'll emerge more often soon.

Yah I'm a bit worried about that one that's close to the window, I think she's the newest (I think they're all female???). I'll keep an eye on her.

November 27, 2021

Fellow gobbos, I have a disgusting yet endearing story for you all. It involves houseflies.

So as some may remember, I have an affinity with houseflies, and they're all calm and stuff around me. And in the hayday of summer, a handful of them were welcome in my home, and took to being calm enough to land on me regularly. One of these was with me for several weeks.

Now, one day a female came in, and all was good in the world. They frolicked, had fun, several days were spent with them flying about my abode, happy as can be. Then the miraculous happened, and our resident female began to grow, and grow! And as her abdomen grew, the male excitedly danced about overhead, and the female as well, until she had found her place to stay, while being nearly too big to fly at all!

Directly. over. my. pillow. Not... not clinging to the hanger above the food dish or the mug with sugary leftovers? Nope, directly above your head! And they were excited, and happy, and calm when I came near and put my finger right beside them. Awwww, they had gotten to know the brood-mother so well, that the female was going to put her eggs right onto me, so that I might gestate her larvae!

And I lay there for a second, after noticing her perched directly. above. my. head. And I thought to myself... maybe... maybe she'll curve to the side, and aim for that dish. Nope, right above your head. Gonna... gonna lay those on my head there eh? Yup, directly in your eye!

Or in my ear. Or in my scalp. Or in my mouth. Y'know, I didn't really like any of these options. And she's all crawling about on the hanger right over my head, and the male is all flying around excitedly. And for a moment, a brief moment, I didn't want to let this beautiful dream change, and *hoped* that by some chance, they would choose the food dish.

Nnnnnnope, at some point reality popped in, and I didn't really want a festering pile of fly larvae inside of my eye socket. I took her little hanger, and brought it over to the bathroom, and put underneath her three dishes, and little blops of food around them in case she missed the dish when landing. And then I packed socks under the door frame because *u are not laying those in my eye socket I am so sorry I love you but I cannot grow those inside of my person*.

In the morning, she had chosen the bowl with the peanutbutter and jam inside, and I moved the little guys to the outdoors where they would have natural (not my eyeball tho) food and nature and stuff. And more fly families to grow up around.

And so, it could be perhaps that some of those came and visited later on, but this was the tale of how I almost had a fly lovingly lay her eggs on me.

Pic: fly patch that just arrived in the mail

December 4, 2021

Anyone ever meet one of these guys? It's story time, I gots a story for you.

So this is swampland, you're knee-deep in, may I say it, pristine glorious swampwater, the reeds grow strong, a net of roots beneath your feet, the water so clear, you can make out every leaf of a fern.

You're merging through the grasses, like a large mammal, an animal in the ecosystem. The dragonflies float around you, moving in unison, or taking their flight arounds. You are in harmony with the atmosphere.

A dragonfly gets in your face, moving erratically and getting direct attention. Not five feet in front of you, a pine beetle sits at the top of a tall reed, nearly at chest height. The swamp grows calm around you, and you approach the beetle. Moving your hand forward, she excitedly scampers onto you, racing up your arm as fast as she can. You can feel it, the swamp can feel it, she is excited! The big monster thing is letting me crawl on it! Oh she took off like a dart, just full tilt, you quickly swing your other hand up to lead her onto that hand, and she pauses for a moment, then speeds up your other arm. You can almost feel her smiling as she races along.

She races too fast however, and your skin is not coarse, and she plummets into the waters beneath. The swamp is calm, despite this calamity. You feel all is well, and she had almost fallen off in a dizzy joy, ecstatic about the monster that she could climb on.

And that's how I met a pine beetle. Yah the swamp was calm, despite her falling and despite them all watching. She had a good day, I think

December 14, 2021

Another fly story

Also telling it so I can remember it better myself

The fly who told me that it doesn't like apples.

So, one of my household flies this summer, I discovered liked sugary things. Like, when I left my mug out, he would especially crawl inside if there was iced tea residue in there, or sugary hot chocolate. So one day I left the big iced tea jug out, like just a 4liter milk thing I filled with iced tea, like it was empty and closed but there was that slight bit of sugars on the outside. And he LOVED that. Would crawl around on it constantly from the moment I put it out.

Now, one time I was eating an apple, and kinda asked it if he wanted any. He's crawling around there, so I try putting a little chunk on the top of the lid. I take my hand away, and like right away, he flies up, lands on it, then flies up again and lands to the side, rubbing his hands all heavily, like his feet were sticky! I hadn't thought of that and hadn't left him room to stand on the lid with it too!

So I take the apple piece away, and he's all watching me, and I replace it with a little tiny piece. He flies up, lands on the lid, and tastes the apple a few times. Then he then went and landed back on the side of the jug, and crawled around on there all happily.

Like awwwww, he noticed that I was giving him food, and then he like... knew to show me that he liked the side of the jug more (I was all cajoling him and sweet talking him whenever he excitedly tasted something of mine, so he... knew this animal's emotions or something lol). So yeah... his little tiny insect brain knew to show me that he liked this more, and I made sure the jug was always out for him

So yeah, little fly story

<no fresh pics just earlier fellas>

December 21, 2021

Another fly story

This one from outside!

It was late in autumn, the air getting crisper, and the grass was getting dry. I decided to hike out to a nearby forest edge to sit, and leave some peanuts for the forest critters of the area (and to kinda sit in nature, but you've gotta bring treats for the animals).

So a few minutes after I sat down, two BIG flies landed on me. Like the guy in the pic (tho not this exact one), just a built looking thing. One on my leg, one on the edge of my jacket.

So I sat there for a few minutes talking to them, "hey there big guy, how you doing today? Finding lots of food I hope?", and that type of thing. So all of a sudden, the one on my leg went into absolute i.n.v.e.s.t.i.g.a.t.e. mode, like I have never seen a fly move so mechanically. If I had to put an attitude behind it, it would be "I am taking up the important position at this point and investigating it for trouble and/or food", like hardcore. So he lands on my hand, and in the most mechanical "I will see what you are" mode that I've ever seen, he strictly set himself to climbing over my hand, almost seeming to avoid eye contact or something, and very mechanically marched all over it once or twice, before flying off without a word. Just... wow, you had a job to be done and you just went and did exactly that there, eh?

Now I'm not sure what exactly he was after, because these beasts **could** have bitten me, I have no doubt in my mind about that. But he didn't, none of them did. He just... investigated the giant pink monster and took off without a glance at me. Very strange.

His friend stayed around for another few minutes, resting on my jacket, and I kept on talking to him for a bit. I wished to them that my peanuts would draw in a mouse perhaps for them to attack and eat (I'm rooting for the fly right now I'm sorry lol), and at some point, when I glanced down again the second one had taken off too. So a bit of an unusual fly story for you, that one fly who was just... set on checking me out after stopping by for a minute

December 21, 2021

One more housefly story

This is the story of the fly that almost got sucked out the window on a windy day but made it back in.

So this summer, this one housefly had come in through my open, screenless window to let birds and such in, and stayed with me for about a week. The window was opened every day, but he never left, just enjoying the safety, food scraps, and my pleasant nature. He would often crawl over my empty coffee mug to lap up anything on the walls, or my food bowl, and was happy just chilling in my space.

So he's been with me for a week, friendly as can be, and often followed me around the apartment and landed on my back if I was hunched over working on an art piece or something.

This one day, it was windy outside, and I left the window closed. Normal occurrence, I'd left it closed one or two other days. At some point, I picked up a leaf off the carpet, and opened the window momentarily to toss it out. Now, I almost had thought that I saw a black dot zip past, but chalked it up to fear at the moment. A few moments more passed, and I called out to my friend, seeing nothing.

I fearfully looked out the window, and there on the outside edge of the windowsill was my little fly friend, clinging to the wood, the wind whooshing past him. Terrified of losing my friend, I opened the window, and he didn't move. The wind, he didn't want to be carried away! I maneuvered my hands to create a wall between him and the wind, and he *s*h*a*k*i*l*y* flew inside again, like... stutter-flying. I swear we were both having a heart attack lol. He landed on the inside sill, and I quickly closed the window. He immediately after closing it, flew up and landed on the glass a few times, making sure it was solid. After a few moments of rest, he returned to normal, and we went about our day again.

I could tell he was scared of the window after that though, and would avoid going near it, and even on calm days I could see him avoiding the window and acting agitated and scared if I opened it. That was the several weeks that the window stayed closed entirely, as I didn't want him to be scared again. He stayed with me for the rest of his days, playing in the food bowl or flying happily in circles around them in the morning to greet me when I woke up. The morning that his old age caught up to him, I found him near the bed on the ground (looking frantically because he wasn't flying around me that morning), still just partially twitching. I held him in my hand, letting his still moving arm to grip my fingerprint ridges until he lay still. He was definitely the fly that got closest to me, and saw me as a friend for all of his indoor life.

I still think about this guy, resting on the hangers above my bed, or flying around and landing on my arm, or eating what's left in my mug. He was the friendliest of them ❤

Photo: I think this is actually him, of the housefly photos in my phone

<oh my goodness this poor little guy!>

January 3, 2022

One more fly story

So this one involves that housefly that almost got sucked out the window on a windy day but made it back inside. At some point during his stay, I was... y'know, having regular baths and such, and I noticed that after he entered the room while I was in there, he flew around staggeredly before retreating to by the door. I opened the window a crack, and within minutes he returned to investigate.

Now this guy had trust in me, like... wow I've never seen this before. So he took a few test landings on me, on various parts of my leg that were out of the water or my arm. And at some point, and I could tell he was doing this, he was trying to find a position where he could cling as close to the water as he could, in the steamy warmth (maybe he just had to get used to the steam a bit, or the window helped or the water cooled slightly), while still being in a position where if he fell he wouldn't land in the water. He started out by like... just walking on my leg close to the water, and soon found... k like, my knees are out of the water and my legs resting against eachother to one side kinda thing, and he clung to my left leg *right* where the legs met, and right at the water line. So like... the water was right at that point of the legs touching eachother (man I was so still at this point I didn't want to make a ripple), and he clung to the upper leg, kinda partially upside-down, hanging directly above the other leg so that if he fell, he would land on the skin of the lower leg, just a sliver above the water level.

And the little guy stayed like that, for I dunno, ten, fifteen minutes or something. I didn't move, he didn't move, and we just sat there enjoying the water, the slight breeze coming in, and the steam of the water. It was gorgeous.

He always followed me to the bath after that, and I always had the (screened) window open a crack (which also taught me to do this for future houseflies lol). Not in the same place necessarily, but he would be on my leg, or my arm, or on the shower curtain, or just flying from one spot to another. Just relaxing, thinking, and feeling my little fly friend crawl around on me

Another fly story

<he loved that little bath!>

January 26, 2022

The fly that I played hide and seek with

So one more fly story for you still. This one was with that fly that almost got lost in the wind.

So after several weeks with me, this fly had developed a behaviour of sorts. K, some backstory. So like, I loved this thing, I'd... chat with it regularly, it flew in happy circles over the food plate in the mornings, like, it was happy. And ok now I'm going on assumptions here, but I figure that the fly learned that by making me happy, it gets happier, because I pay more attention to it and like chat and stuff, send good vibes.

So, after weeks in here, his little fly brain had developed a game, and it was called "be all visible to her, and like happy dance and stuff, and then suddenly use my fly hiding skills to jump out of sight, and then stay there until she spots me". Honest to heavens, it had developed this game, where it would fly around all visible, and then go hidden at some time after a few seconds, and then when I spot him, the second my eyes lock onto him, he crouches down! He was waiting for me to spot him, and then crouched to let me know that he knows I spotted him! And then I'd be all excited and sending good vibes and he'd pick up on that, and it's a feedback loop. He created a hide and seek game with me!

And that's the fly that learned how to play hide and seek. We played it like 5 or 6 times, different rooms and stuff. Kitchen a handful of times. He probably did it a few times before I picked up on it too, so cool, he played a game with me!

I also played 'chase', with him, where he'd like... half-effortly fly around the room and I'd like... chase him, and half-grasped towards him and stuff. The goal was to get like about... a foot from actual contact I guess, was our goal and stuff. We played that a few times

So another fly story for you

<he was so happy!>

February 6, 2022

Alright. Alright alright alright alright alright, one more fly story. The fly that looked for me

I'm not sure if this is a mark of their intelligence, or whether this thing had bonded with me a bit. My bit is on the latter, so hear me out.

So, during my many baths, this fly had taken to wandering in for a minute, buzzing about, then flying out of the room again. So this one bath, I had the curtain closed this time, and the door open a crack for him. Just... of vaguely wondering if he will come in and I won't be able to see him, like he didn't come in every bath.

But sure enough, 3/4 of the way through my usual soaking, we see a lil fly appear at the top of the curtain, and he buzzes down in a spiral kinda, hovering over me for a few seconds, then spirals his way back up and over the top again. The lil guy had found me missing and went looking for me

So that's the tale, of the fly that went looking for me

<awwwww, where... where'd she go >

March 30, 2022

These flies seem to be getting to know us, my friend who I'm presently living with and I. They must have been hibernating somewhere since they showed up in March, possibly from the basement. I told my friend of my tales, and started talking to these little critters.

It's taken about a week, but they've started acknowledging us (I told you they were intelligent), deliberately getting into my vision, and then leading me to another room where he just... hung out. This just happened in the past few days, they showed up about 2 weeks ago, and I've been talking to them any time I see them, and just now (computer was under repairs for half a year), it definitely deliberately led me from the room to the central area, where it just kinda perched on the fan's pull chain.

When I started talking to it, it crunched down onto the chain, like friendly like. It was letting me know it's friend. Like my friend came up here too, since this was all big and stuff, and talked to it too. And I warned it away from the cats, like I've been doing, talking gently to them, then talking... cautionarily towards the cat, pantomiming as much as I can. And he like lets us get close to him, within a foot or so. D'awwwww, he's starting to know us.

June 08, 2022

Yet another tale of the housefly chronicles, the fly that danced with me

So our most recent housefly that I vibed with, she has taken up dancing with me (I think it's a girl). So, it kinda started out with four houseflies kinda congregating on a light fixture (lIiiIiIight anyways), and they've generally either come and gone, but one seems to have stayed around. I've chilled with her a fair number of times, come stand near the light fixture, generally stand still and in... what I can only call my fly posture, standing up with my arms drawn up around my face like little mandibles or something. A friend took a pic of me clung to a wall vibing with her lol, I felt completely like a fly

So anyways, in my dozen or so greetings at the lamp, I've generally tried like... moving around with them, when they go into 'fly mode' and kinda circle around, I'll kinda bob around, generally not walk but just kinda dance, keep my arms pulled in and stuff. Today though, I showed up, generally talked to her, and she started flying and I started bobbing, and she totally got into my sight and started to dance. Like, fly directly towards my face a bit, circle around, no erratic flying, just circle and stay with me. And we danced like that a few times. She tested me once or twice, dart out of my vision, see what I do, five seconds later go directly in front of me again, and danced. And when she stopped, I stopped, a few times, and then when I started, she started . I was making coffee too, so I went and got my water (I'm like talking to her like I'll be right back, and wave to her with my finger mandible, and I'd swear there's been a few times where she's waved her arm in return), and I like make my coffee and go and stand with her again, and I swear, you lock into place. You don't move like normal, I kinda plotted myself onto a spot, not glide into it kinda thing, pretty instantly go into a still mode, and just kinda freeze there with her, she's all dangling off the lamp, and I'm just standing there completely still with coffee in my hand.

And then after a bit I kinda moved to this chair here and typed this, and she's just kinda vibing above me right now. And yeah, this is the tale of the fly that danced with me, and at least the one that I've connected the most with while clung to the wall like that lol. Little housefly friend

Also, groom yourself at the same time as they do that, they like that

Later- And the flies, they danced with me again, about two days later, this time bringing a friend. My cute little friend found me in my room, and had a little friend with him! We gathered near the closet, and they generally took turns dancing around with me. They eventually got me into the position shown in the third pic, as they were slowly moving from dancing with me almost upright, to slowly pulling me down towards the floor lol, maybe to be more comfortable for them. I danced about, and they danced below my fingers, often landing on them and riding with me. It was mainly the new one that was dancing with me, and the familiar one sat just beside us on a cabinet edge, occasionally joining the dance before returning to the cabinet. After we danced for a while, and my back began to get sore, I cajoled and talked with them, thanking them for their time, and promptly got my friend to take that pic of me hunched over lol. And anytime I went into my room that day, the two of them were dancing about by the closet. They eventually found their way outdoors several days later

July 20, 2022

Becoming one with the forest flies.

I befriended a pack of flies in the forest today. Some backstory, not sure if it's related. K so like, the mosquitoes came first, when I got to my sitting spot, I had like... 5 mosquitoes attack me ardently, and then they just kinda stopped trying. And then like 40 seconds laterish, a handful of flies come and check me out, and I get those few pics of some, and one wanted to bite me so I let him (it was a needle type of biter), and we kinda did that back and forth a few times with me talking to him, he got 3 bites outta me before I like was leaving anyway, and I walked about 30 feet away, and I took a few pictures, and then this swarm kinda came up around me and danced with me.

It was almost magical. The phone was in my hand when this happened, so I just pressed record and laid it on my chest. A short video shows our dance, please click here to see it. They danced in threes and fours, dozens of them, happily dancing and playing around eachother and around myself. I twiggled my fingers up in the air to dance with them, and talked with the ones landing nearby. At least 60 of them, in one screenshot. They danced and played, and the buzzing in the air was wonderful. I danced with them a bit (I turned off the camera when I stood up), and after several minutes of dancing about, the swarm dispersed, and all was back to normal, a quiet, grassy meadow. It was magical.

July 29, 2022

August 13, 2022

So, this year's flies seem to have taken a liking to me! It started out with weeks of them only sparingly landing on me, with the occasional one touching down for a brief few seconds. These are different ones from the last entry. In just the past two days, it's elevated from landing on my legs or arms and staying there for 20 seconds at a time, maybe some exploring, to the general house's population staying in my room.

Y'see, I'd noticed that the flies tended to spread themselves out, generally tending to stay to just one or two flies per room, perhaps keeping an eye on the swarm's territory. In these past few days, where I've been talking to them constantly, and shooing the cats out of the room to show them I'm protecting them (when I'm around), its gone from those one or two familiar ones, to the full set of them spending the night in my room (or at least beginning the night there). I went to sleep with no less than 6 sets of compound eyes on me, spread about on various locations, all clearly visible and not attempting to hide (yet high up where the cat's can't reach). When I woke up, a mere two were immediately visible, and within five minutes of me stirring, up to ten had appeared on the windows and cabinetry, just all pleasantly watching, the new hangout spot. The previous 'hangout spot' was that one central lamp hanging near the livingroom, and while one is usually still posted there, the majority today have taken to being with the friendly giant.

And so I sit here, with ten sets of compound eyes watching the room, or playfully crawling about on the window. It's quite warm, so I imagine most of them are in rest mode to keep from overheating. None landed on me at night, nor would I suspect that they would, being too small to want to land on the giant creature that moves unexpectedly at night, and no fly eggs have been spotted, though if they are (if the flies aren't just laying them outside to begin with when the doors are open), any young'uns will be placed outside to grow in their natural habitat. Otherwise, this seems to be a little microcosm of balance, with all of the household flies (seemingly around 10, possibly up to 15 for the scouts in the other rooms), now seeing the giant person monster as friend, and wanting to hang around this nonharmful being.

I will keep you filled in on where they go, though I suspect the balance will remain through the rest of summer as the doors are opened and closed.

August 18, 2022

	Housefly toy acquired.

September 03, 2022

It seems the microcosm has maintained, in a way. So as it turns out, we had a full pod of houseflies, and one day soon after that August 13th entry, I discovered dozens of them sitting on the window screen, happily waiting to leave.* Like a beautiful breath of fresh air, I opened the screen and released all my friends, shiny and new, swarming off into the day. It took several more releases before the bulk of my litter was gone, and it quickly returned to there only being about 10 flies inside. It seems I've convinced them to limit their numbers inside. Over the weeks, I've been talking to the remaining few, and at a point, it seemed a larger number was inside, nearly twenty. I talked with them, and like a mother to her cubs, told them of the outside world, the vast blue, with the smells of fresh flowers, leaves, and moist earth. A horizon that stretches farther than you could ever dream, delights, smells, and wonders around every corner. I told them that the inside was but a small fraction, just a crumb, of the incredible things outside. I spoke with my swarm, I talked to them as they sat near a screen, as they looked out the window. A swarm is not meant to stay inside, you must spread, my friends! You must adventure the world, you cannot stay locked up in here, there is too much outside! Your place is outside, my friends, this is where you must strive to go. And the numbers dropped. It returned to a stasis of about 10 houseflies in the house again, with any number leaving, or even returning when the door is left open so that the cats can wander around outside. It always seems to hover around 10 now.

* hover mouse over happily waiting

Their litterboxes, as it were, consisted of three places in the house, they are like housecats, quite a bit. They certainly clean themselves as much as one (see video at bottom, that's like... every time after they fly lol). And as with my previous address, they only 'use the toilet' in certain places, in this case one particular glass lamp shade, and one venetian window blind. I've cleaned up the rare other dot, but to be serious, it really, really is only in one or two spots, I've been watching out for these like a hawk.

And I do tell my swarm, the ten remaining in the house, that any that new fellas (they seem to keep balance, like I said) that land on a screen... that outside is the place to be. And I release them, with joy and passion, telling them to explore the world, go far and near, adventure around, see the sights and smell the smells! And a handful of them still stay in the area, when I go and sit in the back yard. The occasional one will still land on me, and look at me with knowing, with kind eyes. And they will sit there with me, hopping back and forth from arm to arm, until they eventually wander off on their way. No, I teach my swarm not to get too attached though, and that outside is the place to be. But they maintain balance, seemingly keeping to about ten flies in total inside, maintaining this number for weeks now. Small ones show up, and quickly wait at the screen. A handful stay, one or two older flies, and a handful of young ones, learning the place of kindness, landing on my legs. The cats even, have learned that flies are friends, and leave them alone. Occasionally their instincts kick in, and so I continue to warn the flies against going too near to the cats, and we seem to have harmony. The houseflies balance now, and clean themselves constantly when not tussling with a sibling or snacking on a droplet of coffee. And I keep repeating it that they clean themselves constantly, just to remind everyone that they *are* actually quite clean. Standard litter box spot, and they're constantly cleaning the slightest spec of dust from themselves. A wonderful little swarm.

And so, with one dancing about my feet and sharing my coffee, we have a happy balance. They seem to be listening to me, my emotions, and seek to go outside, minus my few that remain inside. I am part of the swarm now, and have become known to the insects outside as well. Travelling four blocks away, I've sat in the grasses and was instantly befriended by the local flies and wasps, all types seemed to be at peace with me. Which brings me to that story as well, parcelled into this one. Between the last few entries, I went out to a dense patch of grasses and trees four blocks away. And literal seconds after settling in, I had this one little fly, a tiny one, on display fighting/training with an older sibling in front of me, after which he basically took up my arm as his primary 'guard spot'... and was jumping up and battling other little flies before landing back on me again. Shortly after, it quickly evolved into everyone being allowed to land on me. I was one with the swarm, and one with the insects. I had one wasp literally preen at me, and at least two ants travelled and investigated me. Several other insect types came and sat beside me as well, staying just feet away and chilling. Not a single bite. Just one of the swarm.

They were sitting, relaxing, and making directly eye contact with me. Either word got out from the house, or I can just vibe with them instantly, because I literally had one sitting on me before going there. The insect Spirits may have been helping us as well. Somehow, four blocks away in the trees, they all connected with me instantly.

My little swarm, I am definitely part of a swarm here. And they're regulating their numbers inside. And one is dancing on my toes as I type this

September 07, 2022

I dance with the flies now. They know me. Y'see, a fly can easily dart out of your vision. Whether by evolution or training, they know how to tell if your eyes are trying to follow them, and how to get away from that. These flies... they dance with me. They deliberately get in my vision, lead me forward, towards the swarm. They dance, they play, they keep in my vision, as they would another of their swarm. Play with me for a few seconds, dart off and look at something else. Play with another fly. Dance around. Go from one fly to another. Three of them together, they all try to come as close as they can to eachother, circle around, and fly off, from that central pivot spot. No collisions, unless they're tussling. I am part of them. They have tussled with me as well, as much as they're daring to go near the giant 20 story creature. The thing that can move walls (doors). They will tussle with my hair, of the odd time one has been daring enough to wrassle with me. They will fly into my hair, buzz and tangle around, and fly off again, just like tussling with another fly. They fly and they tussle, and I am one. They follow me to my room sometimes, let me know they're around. They often sit at the central gathering area, a lampshade that hangs from the ceiling at about head height. By propping myself still near the lampshade, I am effectively sitting on it with them. They dance and they play (tussling is really quite uncommon in the central area, surprisingly), and they float around. Often only one or two will fly off of the lamp (or the corner of the wall nearby), dance with eachother, and the others will stay. Other times, one takes off and then they all take off, in a glorious dance of five or six flies all swirling around eachother. Of course I'm dancing too

And if it isn't enough, my latest Dungeons and Dragons character Kabu-Galag is a Thri-Kreen insectile warrior >

September 14, 2022

What does a fly see

September 19, 2022

There's a handful of flies that like to hang out around me at work now. I'm not sure if they do that to other people, but immediately, almost immediately after... well, I didn't harm them or swipe at them, and talked to them like I do my flies at home, wiggling my fingers and such. Pretty immediately after, they felt calm enough to land on me, walk on my hands, even stay within inches of me say... moving a piece of paper or something, like doing it carefully of course, but they don't fly off when I'm moving stuff around, they know I'm watching out for them. So I'm friends with those too now.

The flies at home are... pretty much the same as the last time that I spoke about them. A handful of tiny new flies show up, them and larger ones go to the screen and leave at regular intervals, there's no large numbers anywhere, the biggest swarm that I see is about five. It's going well. And come winter, either they'll hibernate in the basement, or I'll shuffle them out as best I can. Flies in the house, a handful, it's never honestly been a problem, like in regular day to day, growing up or anywhere. Might see three in the basement in winter, growing up. And like I said, they clean themselves *literally* more often than cats do, and walking around with a disposable wet-wipe periodically takes care of the 'dot spots' lol. They'll come and greet me here and there, just to come and say hi. Fly by and crawl on my paperwork for a few minutes before going back to their usual hangout. And the same with them, I'll go and look for them in their usual spots, usually find one or two, say hi, chill with them. I'm a fly

And they dance with me. If I come across that set of five all together, one will start dancing and I'll start dancing and everyone starts dancing, and I don't know who joined first, but we're all dancing

September 21, 2022

How to befriend the flies

So, I've noticed one thing, about the flies in public and the flies at home. Now, when I'm out, if a fly lands on my leg or my book or somewhere (usually not skin initially), they will just sit there and look at me at first. I'll talk to them and nod at him/her, and do my finger wiggling thing while talking to them.

And lemme get into this.

Ok, the finger wiggling, is my trying to mimic them moving their front arms around. I don't want to move my full limbs because we're giant and enormous, and that's scary, so I just wiggle my finger, or not at all, if they're standing close to my hand. So that mimics their arms, in theory.

Now, nodding my head. First, with the flies at home, I noticed they get a lot more relaxed when I nod my head between sentences while talking to them. Just turns out that way, figured it out early into them staying here, and observing them. I nod my head, and they'll get relaxed, either clean themselves or just sit still. The ones at home sometimes just nod just their head in return, I think they learned that one from me.

Ok, now the reasoning that I'm putting together with all this. Now I assume my head-nodding mimics them when they're cleaning their heads. Now, flies generally only clean themselves when they feel not afraid and safe, so head bobbing is basically, as far as I can tell (I've never seen them bob their head otherwise, in flight or anywhere, else), just that, cleaning yourselves. So, putting that together, with the behaviour that I witnessed early on, my head bobbing (which I start a doing specifically to mimic their movements) I assume makes them think that I feel safe enough to clean myself. That's what makes the most sense out of this, they only bob their heads when cleaning, they clean around eachother, and when it's safe, I'm essentially cleaning myself. So they're relaxed, and generally I've kept this up all through summer, and they're used to it.

SO, back to the ones in public. Now, they usually don't nod back to me like the ones at home, but they'll start to clean themselves around me and on me, as I talk to them and nod my head (on the bus lol). They're relaxed. And they'll immediately start searching around, crawling over my hand or page, cellphone screen. I'm not moving, or I move slowly if I do, while talking to them. And yah I just let them go nuts, taste the screen for a snack tidbit, get the salt off my arms. Even if I move suddenly (something bus happens), they'll swirl around a bit and hang close. These guys got moves too, dodging between handrails and stuff. So I think that's why they'll circle pretty near, just... something startled the big giant thing, let it calm down and it should be good. And yah, they crawl on me, and have fun and stuff.

Talk to them and nod your head, those are the big things.

October 7, 2022

	The Cube of Kolyoral, a very fly-related thing. Also dungeons and dragons.

My swarm 2022
Lil fly flying around
Forest swarm that I befriended

Song-a-day talking about how to let flies in (YouTube link)
- the little fly friends I'm talking about (YouTube link)

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