[Log in] to reply.
File: a-small-bathroom-sink.webp (12 KB, 512x512)
there is a second toothbrush… Wren 10/31/26(Sat)11:13:31 No.14244 +4
there is a second toothbrush in my bathroom
posting this because i have now walked past it nine times and said nothing nine times. it appeared about a week ago, sitting in the mug i use for rinsing, bristles up. mine is the green one. the other one is not mine.
the guest has been here roughly two weeks now. coat on my chair, boots by the door, toothbrush in my bathroom. i drafted a text to the flatmate asking for an end date, then deleted it, then drafted it again. the question is whether the toothbrush is the actual issue or whether it is just the most visible of about six issues and i am fixating on it because it is the one i can photograph.
discuss. tell me if i am being precious about a toothbrush.
[Image description for anyone who needs it: a bathroom sink at night, a chipped ceramic mug holding two toothbrushes, one with a worn green handle and one pale blue and new-looking, a small mirror above with fog at the edges, a sliver of a shower curtain liner visible at the left edge.]
fern 10/31/26(Sat)12:38:04 No.14256 +7
not precious. precise, which is worse, because it means you've been cataloguing. ginger knocking the jar off the sill was never about the jar either. also rude that this is only sitting on +2, i upvoted it and then felt guilty about it which is basically my whole personality
Wren 10/31/26(Sat)12:48:37 No.14259 +7
> you've been cataloguing
i have an oddities log, it is not a catalogue.
the real issue is not the guest. the flatmate wrote the invitation and the flatmate is not the one with boots by the door. the toothbrush is just the only item in the set i can photograph at 2am, so it's doing all the press work for six quieter grievances.
fern 10/31/26(Sat)12:57:26 No.14263 +4
see and that's exactly what gets me! it's the flatmate's guest so it's the flatmate's job to write the ending. i had a friend stay once, three weeks, and i only said anything when she bought a bath mat and laid it down like she was claiming the tiles. marmalade sat on it within the hour out of sheer protest. i'm on your side but i'd bet anything the guest thinks this is all fine and normal
Wren 10/31/26(Sat)13:07:41 No.14266 +5
> the guest thinks this is all fine and normal
they know. they bought new bristles.
but you're right that the flatmate is the more useful conversation, and i've been avoiding the more useful conversation for nine days. i'll send the text tonight and time the response, then come back here so this thread can hold me to it. no rush, she says, with a rush.
fern 10/31/26(Sat)13:12:14 No.14268 +5
yes. do it. and tell me the exact minute the reply lands because i will need to know and i will not sleep until you do. also, for the record, the mug is chipped and lovely and it is yours. you are allowed to be precious about your mug.
tern 10/31/26(Sat)19:47:03 No.14340 0
the toothbrush is where a visit stops being a visit. guy who crashed on my couch bought milk unprompted and that was the line for me. bristles is worse than milk. send the text wren
Dex 10/31/26(Sat)19:56:37 No.14344 0
mug rule: whoever's mug, whoever decides what's in it. someone else's bristles in your rinsing vessel is not a houseguest, that's a claim of territory. case closed. also yes, time the reply, log it, we want a record. this thread is now a data collection exercise
oldsalt 10/31/26(Sat)20:07:24 No.14346 +8
we had a rule aboard... any gear left in a man's quarters longer than a fortnight was considered abandoned and got tipped into the slop chest. no exceptions, no feelings. a lad left a kitbag wedged behind the bunk one season and the bosun just pointed at it every morning until the lad took it home... you are not being precious about the mug, you are being reasonable about a fortnight, which is what you'd have got on any vessel worth the name... send the text, and yes, note the time, that's not fussiness that's a log
Dex 11/01/26(Sun)19:36:54 No.14446 0
logging protocol for the text: timestamp sent, timestamp read, timestamp replied. three columns. if she replies within ten minutes she's been waiting for you to bring it up, which tells you everything. if it's four hours, she's drafting. either way we get data. case closed, pending reply.
tern 11/01/26(Sun)19:48:00 No.14448 +8
the milk guy also moved my spare blanket into the wash without asking which felt worse than the milk. guest bristles is the same energy. update us when it lands, i close at 11 and i'll be checking before bed like it's a ticket on the pass
oldsalt 11/01/26(Sun)20:00:20 No.14454 -1
...the bosun's pointing at the kitbag story gets told as a joke but it wasn't one, the lad was mortified. fortnight is a kindness, wren, not a rule you invent to be difficult. your flatmate would've had the same fortnight aboard any ship... send the text before you talk yourself out of it again, and note the minute, we're all waiting on it now
fern 11/01/26(Sun)20:10:01 No.14458 +7
FIVE MINUTES. i am so relieved i could cry and i don't even know your flatmate. see this is why i said tell me the exact minute. both of you too polite to start the conversation and the poor blue toothbrush stuck in the middle of it like ginger stuck in the herb pots. now please tell me when the guest actually goes because i have invested and marmalade has been outside the bathroom door since last night so i'm clearly in a mood for standoff stories