#centaur anatomy lesson

[amielot]

Two hearts

immediate continuation from this post.

:3

[aroaceleovaldez]

Any headcannons about Will Solace? he's an underrated bby (I think?) and I personally hc that he used to be a very moody kid but then decided to turn off all of his negaive emotions (most of the time)

oh i have SO many Will Solace headcanons built up from writing him on Deadangelos so much. Below the cut cause this is very long (and tumblr started glitching about the list format so manual it is):

- His roles at CHB are basically "Every possible medical personnel Ever™." He's camp medic, physician, surgeon, pediatrician, pharmacist, psychiatrist, therapist, dentist, optometrist, veterinarian, etc etc etc. Technically Chiron is also All Of That, but ever since Will joined camp most of the responsibility falls to him (at least in part because campers generally feel a bit more comfortable dealing with somebody their own age versus an immortal centaur), and Chiron just mentors him on it (unless they're running low on hands, in which case Chiron does pitch in, and sometimes the other Apollo kids help staff the infirmary if Will needs. In the past though it was usually just Chiron and whichever camper he pulled in that week to do first aid training with. Mr. D only really handles therapy stuff if Will isn't able to for one reason or another. Will gets very individualized training and has has own schedule separate from the rest of his cabin to account for all of that. Chiron basically personally took Will in under his wing as his apprentice and a not insignificant portion of Will's personal training is gross anatomy lessons with Chiron in the camp morgue. Will does not question where Chiron procures the cadavers for that. He probably should. They aren't campers. They are sometimes demigods, but not always. Most of the rest of camp doesn't even know there's a morgue, let alone that Will does gross anatomy dissection. It's not technically a camp "secret," Will isn't secret about it at all, but most campers treat it like it is and like to use it to try and spook new campers. The ones who find out about the gross anatomy portion and that there is exactly zero information about how Chiron is procuring cadavers are Mildly Concerned.

- Photokinesis and plague powers Will are both extremely fun. I love making him a son of Apollo Smintheus specifically and giving him pet rats and/or the ability to talk to rats and mice. He thinks they're soooo cute and is definitely the type to brag about how intelligent rats are. I also like to think he maybe had a pet snake at one point, like a big ol' boa. Will with a sunglow boa or something? yes? (I also just in general love the idea of Will's house back in Texas being a cute little ranch cause Naomi is rich and also a cowgirl and Will having a ton of different animals over the years. He probably originally wanted to be a veterinarian before he settled more on medic.)

- I just generally love playing with Will (not-so) subtly being the exact opposite of what people would expect from an Apollo kid. Initially he looks like the gold standard for an Apollo kid - sunny, friendly, chill, medic/healer, interest in science/arts/fandom, etc etc. Then you speak to him for more than 20 minutes and find out he loves snakes and rats and guts and gore and is fascinated by disease and mold. He takes gross anatomy classes taught by Chiron. One of his favorite hobbies is just dissecting stuff. He's into vulture culture. His idea of a perfect date is holding hands over a cadaver he is actively cutting into and passing the other person cool stuff he's fishing out. Also he's very vocal about thinking monsters are hot and the combo of all of that is exactly why he's into Nico. Everybody else thinks Nico's inherently cursed or something? Will doesn't mind being cursed - in fact he wants to be cursed, for science. He's swooning over the idea of Nico sacrificing him for some dark ritual in the middle of the night. He daydreams about Nico being a vampire that's gonna romantically kill him. The rest of camp is waiting for the day Will does something stupid and gets himself killed like, flirting with a monster (or the Hades kid) or something. Nico just generally doesn't know how to feel about the whole situation but is? (hesitantly) flattered?? that somebody is enthusiastic about him while recognizing and appreciating his Underworld aspects. Will is out-weirding him, somehow, and Nico never knew this was a thing that could happen.

- Related to that - I have a whole headcanon about "Bad Omen" demigods, which are basically the other main CHB cabin's versions of Hephaestus kids with fire powers being bad luck. For Apollo kids their "bad luck omen" super rare power is a plague-powers kid, and Will showed up during the Titan War, just a couple months before the Battle for Manhattan when nearly all his cabin died. He is very acutely aware of this superstition and fully believes he is a bad luck charm for the cabin and feels SUUUUPER guilty about it and so hides his plague powers. It's not that he feels bad about his plague powers specifically - he thinks plague stuff is really fascinating and his powers are cool and can be used for healing too! - he's just really concerned about how others will view him. (Very strong parallel dynamics between how Will views his plague powers vs the stigma around them & how Nico views his Underworld powers vs the stigma around them. They are handshake emoji).

- TTC implies that Apollo kids are more often than not summer-only campers, and I think it's fun to have Will's backstory being: He may or may not have "accidentally" caused a plague/pest outbreak at his old school early into the year and between that school having to shut down for a couple of months because of that and his mom maybe going on tour, they decided it was time for him to move to CHB and go there year-round. Except he goes from Texas to New York in the middle of winter and he's a son of Apollo, so he gets there and it's like sleet and slush and all cold and he's the only Apollo kid at camp and he hates it so bad. He eventually gets used to it but it is awkward when all his siblings come back in the spring/summer to find they have a new youngest sibling who's just been chilling all by himself for a couple of months. But then Austin and Kayla join so at least he's not the newest/youngest Apollo kid. (But then nearly all of Cabin 7 immediately dies in TLO and Will's right back to being in a mostly empty cabin and being in charge.)

- He definitely puts on an approachable/friendly, or at the very least calm, face 99% of the time, partially because it's expected of him and it's also maybe a little bit masking (it's a lot masking) cause he knows he can be a bit much. He is 100% the type of guy who feels like he has to solve all his problems himself and can't let anybody else know he has problems, and also that he has to help everybody else with their problems because that's his job, right? So he's constantly stressing himself out to the point of breakdown. He also half lives in the infirmary (which he totally has his own little office in) and he'll just shut himself in and spend like, a couple of days straight in there and probably not sleep. He's a workaholic just as bad as Nico and a total hypocrite about it/about overexerting one's self but he's working on it. Nico's too much of a take-no-shit kind of guy (and also him and Will are way too similar) so usually when Will nags Nico about that kind of thing it turns into Will looking in a mirror or Nico turning it back around on him and Will going "ah shit i need to take my own advice >:T"

- He's best friends with Drew Tanaka and he lets out his bitchy side when he's hanging out with her. they are bitching friends. they love to bitch. It's a great venting environment for him cause he knows Drew loves to hear him complain and talk shit so he can just let out all his pent-up frustrations and she'll just enthusiastically eat it all up. The two of them will gossip endlessly. Drew is mildly concerned about Will's romantic tastes though (again: monsters. cryptids. the Addams family. evils from the shadows. the guy from The Shape Of Water. Nico) and keeps trying to talk him out of flirting with things that might kill him. He does not listen to her.

- His only normal crush is Paolo but everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop about how Will could possibly be weird about this one (there's an ongoing camp bet with different theories). He also dated Drew for like, all of a week but they both decided they totally hated it and preferred to stay just besties (bonus points: That was what Drew considered as her passing the whole Aphrodite-kids-breaking-hearts thing. literally neither of them cared).

- I know his full name is William but it's really funny if he lies about that and his full name is actually Wilhelm, named after the scream.

- ...He is a Swiftie. He's been a Swiftie since he was younger back with like, OG-era country music Taylor Swift and he's just stuck with it.

- Trans!Will is fun and I love it lots. Drew helping him with transition stuff is also very near and dear to me.

- His crush on Nico originates from them meeting for the first time during the Battle for Manhattan. Nico's attempt at flirting with Percy misfired and hit Will instead lmao. Nico parts the Titan Army in cool thematic armor and with three gods in tow, says a dramatic one-liner, and then is super badass in battle and Will is head-over-heels for him immediately. He then proceeds to spend the next year obsessing over Nico and being tormented by Nico never being at camp and never being able to talk with him. Ergo why when Nico shows up in BoO, Will is immediately like "HOLD MY HANDS. THREE DAYS IN THE INFIRMARY. HANG OUT WITH ME PLEASEEEE-" (and that's why Will was under the assumption that Nico was actively avoiding people rather than being ostracized, cause he had heart-eyes tunnel vision). Him in BoO though really is just seeing his crush and losing all his cool.

- For some reason he is just an absolute magnet for chthonic demigods. Nico, Lou Ellen, Cecil (who i hc is a chthonic Hermes kid), etc etc. He thinks Underworld stuff is super cool though (again, see: Will being super into spooky/gory stuff/etc). Also all the ex-Titan army kids decided they were his personal body guards immediately after the war cause he was nice to them.

- He is a HUUUUGE nerd. Specifically a sci-fi and disney nerd. They're his hyperfixations (/special interests if you lean more autistic!Will) <3 His favorite franchises are Star Wars and Avatar (the blue one). He loves conceptual alien biology/ecology and could go on about it endlessly. He will also very enthusiastically infodump about Disney history (both the art/animation side and theme parks side) and other sci-fi series. Ask him about Doctor Who (you will be there for several hours).

- Will being a micro-celebrity cause of his mom is very fun to me. He's been on talk shows and stuff before cause people love how snarky this country star's kid is. He has an extremely popular Instagram and Austin uses him as clickbait in his Youtube videos extremely often (including forcing him to guest-star or do like react content and stuff) (Will is more than happy to indulge him though cause he finds it funny).

- I also love the idea that Will and Piper have actually known each other since they were little, from Tristan and Naomi meeting at some point and realizing they had kids the same age and encouraging them to be pen-pals. Once social media becomes more of a like, Proper Thing™ they become mutuals on Instagram but just use it to periodically send each other silly memes (Piper's instagram is private and basically all she uses it for is dm'ing people). It takes them a solid week of being at CHB together to realize "WAIT, YOU'RE THAT [PIPER/WILL]?!" One of their hobbies is going into the city and seeing if people will recognize them/if paparazzi will see them and making games out of it (who can ruin the most photos, what types of fake gossip can we get them trying to circulate, etc etc).

- I am a firm believer that Will is an extremely loud out-and-proud type of guy and has been for awhile (again see: him being a micro-celebrity) and he spearheads or runs a lot of pride stuff at CHB ever since he joined. If there is a pride parade/event at CHB he helps organize it. If there's a GSA club at CHB he is the head of it. He keeps pamphlets in the infirmary of queer educational material and guides to different identities and stuff and is very passionate about making people feel welcomed and comfortable. Because of this, when he found out Nico was from the 1930s and severely not up-to-date on terminology and stuff, he considered getting Nico up-to-date his greatest challenge yet. It was a personal quest for him. There was also definitely at least a week before that where Will thought Nico might be homophobic or something and was going "I CAN FIX HIM" before Nico managed to explain that no, he's... very supportive (muffled coughing coming from closet), he's just also extremely behind and doesn't know what any of those words mean, thanks. Will set up the most extensive queer crash course possible for him and poor Nico was just going "slow down please,,,," the entire time. Will gets him up mostly up to speed eventually. I just love Will being that type of guy who will start explaining misc queer history with citations at the drop of a hat. It is probably another hyperfixation of his.

- Will and Annabeth both consider Chiron an adoptive father-figure and joke about being siblings and which of them is the favorite child, cause they both know they're definitely Chiron's favorite campers. They both get him father's day cards/gifts.

[echo-bleu]

Jaskier volunteered for Ciri’s anatomy lesson... Made in collab with @xianvar for her Centaur!Jaskier series, for the Halloween fic jump out of your skin. Go read it to find out the Witchers’ reaction, and what Ciri’s costume is going to be!

[ID: Digital drawing of Jaskier as a chestnut centaur, naked, with bones painted all over his body. He has a hand on Ciri’s shoulder, who is leaning on him and laughing up at him. He’s laughing too and looking slightly embarrassed, with his other hand rubbing his neck.]

[ticktockstuck]

Versal Biology Lesson: Gels

Folks like Tyzias and Galekh, whose bodies are slimy and fluid, are collectively called gelatines, though most people just shorten that and call them “gels”. Gelatines are not a specific race within the Verse and it’s more accurate to call them a specific type of person in the same vein as “having a snake tail for a lower body” or “being a half-bug centaur” or “having multiple arms”.

Either you’re a gel or you’re not. Gelatines are born the way they are, and barring some Denizen-level magics you can’t transform yourself into a gel. The majority of gels are trolls thanks to their mutation-friendly biology, but human or even leprechaun gels are entirely possible. The latter two require a lot more odd circumstances to occur but biologically speaking they’re entirely plausible.

Not all gels are the same. One of the ways that different gels stand out from each other is in viscosity; some are fluid and watery while others are dense and made up of solid goop. Coloration can vary wildly, as can composition. Tyzias’ body is heavily similar to caffeine while Galekh’s body more closely resembles an opaque heavy tar. Another gelatine could have the transparent appearance of water, the dense swill of fruit pulp, or even resemble any number of acids.

Gels have consistent mass. Gelatines build up their bodies the same way non-fluid folk build up weight. Once a gel gets past their race’s relative age of puberty their bodies have built up 90% of the mass they’ll ever have, and the rest comes in slowly over the rest of their life. To the benefit of drippier gelatines, some of that mass can be temporarily lost in safety but an excess of lost mass can be detrimental to their health. Food, rest, and general self-care helps gels build their mass back up.

Gels have a consistent shape. While their fluid anatomy allows them some freedom in their body’s shape, they maintain a set structure and any transformations will eventually fall back to that structure. Moreover, those transformation aren’t able to spontaneously add or remove mass, they’re just moving what they have around their body. As a general example, a gelatine could form a tendril out of their mass but at best it’d be able to stretch 3-4 feet away from their body. A gel’s shape usually takes after their respective race but any number of other quirks can sneak into their biology to complicate things (i.e. serpent-bodied gels).

Gels have a “skeleton” that keeps them together. Every gel has a structure in their body that acts as their center of mass and (put simply) as a hybrid skeletal-nervous system. This can manifest in one of three distinct ways: an exoskeleton, an endoskeleton, and a membrane.

An exoskeleton like Tyzias’ means their body is more rigidly locked to a specific shape but they’re less prone to dripping and are better protected from outside forces.

An endoskeleton like Galekh’s gives a gel much more freedom of movement and a greater ability to transform their bodies, but also exposes them to the elements.

The third option is that they develop a thick membrane as an outer layer to their slime bodies. This tends to be rare and these cases are called gummies due to having a similar body structure to certain candies. Their boneless bodies are even less capable of transformation than a gel with an exoskeleton, but they’re not as threatened by their environment as a gel with an endoskeleton is.

Gels have the standard array of internal organs. Outside of their central structures, gels have the same stomachs, brains, hearts, and whatever as anyone else of their respective race...well, mostly. Some organs have some specific adaptations to their slime anatomy but generally there’s little difference in function or form. This also means that they’re as vulnerable to physical and mental injury or illness as anyone else, though their slime bodies allow them a measure of self-defense by moving organs around (within reason). This also means gelatines can grow hair but you see that more often on gels with an exoskeleton since they have the proper base for it, though gummies can have a similar feature growing out of their heads.

Gels don’t melt. While gels have a fluid anatomy, they don’t dissolve when they’re wet. A gelatine’s center of mass and their organs are still there to keep their bodies held together, so instant dissolution and death just doesn’t happen. In a rainstorm, for example, a gel could just “drink” any water that comes their way by absorbing it into their slime mass, and at worst they’d experience some brief water bloating. Do not confuse this point to mean that gels experience bodies of water the same way anyone else does; if a gel was tossed into a pool they wouldn’t die but the water would interfere with their ability to move and they’d have difficulty getting out on their own, and drowning is entirely an outcome they need to worry about.

Gels are vulnerable to the temperature. How drastically the weather affects any given gel depends on their individual composition (thick, smooth, goopy, fluid, etc) but in any case it does have an impact. Dry climates specifically are the worst for a gel to bear because they can start to dry out, making it harder to move around and eventually they’ll start rapidly losing slime mass. Frigid temperatures can make them sluggish but it’s a lot more bearable for them than intense heat.

If you have questions about gelatines that weren’t answered in this post, the inquiries office is always open. I can’t say when the next installment of this series will be, but there will certainly be another one because the Verse has more than enough biological oddities to cover.

[rutobuka2]

Prompts/challenges for Fem!Bagginshield week ✍️

@fembagginshield​ is having a special week for this genderswap AU, and I thought it’d be fun to share a few ideas to get folks drawing and/or writing!

Here’s their masterpost about the event!

To join, you only have to draw/write Thorin and Bilbo BOTH as women (harold, they’re lesbians), and tag it as #fem!bagginshield / #bagginshield so others can see your creations! There’s also an Ao3 collection if you’d like to submit, here.

⚬ Now that’s out of the way, I thought it’d be fun to ask my friends for ideas, and also to have both technical challenges as well as prompts for the creations, for those who want extra incentive!

Art or writing prompts

@yubiwamonogatari​‘s prompts: Sitting on a pier and fishing in the Shire Feeding ravens in Erebor The pottery scene from Ghost

@mithrilbikini​‘s prompts: Erebor vs Shire On the quest vs after Fluff vs angst

@ahiddenkitty​‘s prompts: North and South Adopting a cat Goat-riding/cookery lessons

@mcmanatea​‘s prompts: Reading the contract more closely during down-time. Bilbo sketching during the quest/looking through the sketches after returning home Thorin and Bilbo try to teach the other their hobby Confusion about dwarf vs hobbit idioms After days of teasing and innuendo, they find themselves with 20 minutes alone

Art-only prompts/challenges by me

Technical (pick one or more per day, the order doesn’t matter): 📐 Isometric OR dramatic perspective angle 📐 Traditional OR digital 📐 Monochromatic, bichromatic, limited pallete 📐 Simplified OR over-rendered 📐 Fill a page with sketches OR finish and color a single piece 📐 In someone else’s style 📐 Full body OR scene plus background 📐 Focusing on the anatomy 📐 Using different tools (different digital brushes, pens, pencils, etc)

Prompts (pick one word per day): 23/07 Hair - hands - feet 24/07 Clothes - nude - underwear 25/07 Bedroom - bathroom - parlor - kitchen 26/07 Afterlife - birth - adoption - pebblehood - faunthood - aging 27/07 Shaving - tending to garden 28/07 Trans Bilbo and Trans Thorin 29/07 Alternate universe - modern AU - victorian AU - futuristic AU 30/07 Legendary creatures (e.g. Mermaid - satyr - centaur - harpy - werewolf) 31/07 Tears - hugs - kisses - sex

Writing-only prompts/challenges by @mcmanatea​

Technical (pick one or more per day, order doesn’t matter): ✒️ Write in the first person. ✒️ Write from the perspective of a character not in the ship. ✒️ Write a specific non-canon time period (like Victorian, WW2, etc.) ✒️ Write based on a song that doesn’t actually use the song in the fic. ✒️ Write the same scenario from both Bilbo and Thorin’s perspectives. ✒️ Write in present tense. ✒️ Write a PWP.

Have fun creating! We hope they’re useful! ✌️

[mistiqartsillustration]

Who is your best boi? The Shire boi, Andalusian boi or Akhal teke boi? This lesson is a Patreon exclusive only this month on Patreon, but if you want only tue lesson, you can get it right here : https://gumroad.com/l/vDpCA Lesson is a full process and a horse/centaur anatomy super simplified! #mangatutorial #arttutorial #centaur #mythology #tutorial #mangaartist #mangaillustration #mangaart #mangaartwork #mangadrawing #mangasketch #instamanga #mistiqarts

[azvolrien]

The Lady of Kaltara - Chapter One

So I suppose I finally came up with a title other than ‘swamp adventure’? In a variation on previous stories I’ve posted here, this one actually is finished, but I’ll be staggering the chapters over the next few days regardless.

The file name, however, is still ‘swamp adventure’.

~~~

           “Last day of term,” said Wygar. “Excited for our holiday?”

           Una nodded, trotting alongside him through the College corridors. “It’ll be weird, seeing what things are like out in the Empire,” she said. “I’ve never been outside Stormhaven before, and now we’re going all the way to… What’s it called again?”

           “Stonehead,” said Wygar. “To be honest, I don’t know if it’ll be all that exciting – it’s just a resort town these days – but the scenery should be beautiful. It’s in the north of the Kiraani Hills, almost in the Dragon’s Teeth. The source of the Stone River is near there, hence the name. People say the waters there have medicinal properties.”

           “Do they?”

           “I doubt it, sweetheart. It’s probably just something they say to attract visitors. Though I suppose a dip in a freezing mountain lake could be invigorating.”

           Una snorted.

           “Yes, my sentiments are similar. Your mother might have other thoughts.”

           “Mam doesn’t have most people’s idea of ‘cold’.”

           “Yes, I’ve noticed that about her. The amount of trouble I had persuading her to dress a little more warmly while she was expecting you… Still, there should be plenty to do if you don’t want to just lounge on a terrace admiring the mountains, and I have it on good authority that it’s a very nice hotel.”

           “I should hope so!” said Una, heated. “I saw the cheque you sent them!”

           “Yes, we’ve been saving up for this almost since I got back from Varakai,” said Wygar. “So, how was your last day at school? Did they try to make you do any work?”

           “On the last day? Nah, they learned that lesson years ago. It was fun, actually – they’d put together this big scavenger hunt all through the school, with a prize for the first team to find all the clues. I was with Gwyn and Alwen.”

           “Oh? And how did that go?”

           Una proudly held up a packet of crystallised strawberries.

           “Oh, very nice. But you’d best put those away – no food in the flask labs.”

           Una stowed the packet inside her coat as Wygar shoved open the door.

           “Right on time,” said Calburn without looking up from his clipboard. “He’s ready to decant. Much longer and he’d be overdone.”

           “Can a construct be ‘overdone’?” asked Una, frowning. “It’s spell-fluid, not an oven.”

           Calburn hung the clipboard from his belt. “Fayn didn’t want to be here?”

           “Not that she didn’t want to,” said Wygar, folding his arms. “But all the librarians are swamped with their last-minute pre-summer organisation.”

           “Ah, right. Yeah, constructs can be overdone,” Calburn said to Una. “If you leave them in the flask for too long past their due date, their bones can get sort of…overgrown and end up all weird and lumpy.”

           “Well, we wouldn’t want that,” said Una solemnly.

           “No, we wouldn’t. Here, here – I used the same flask for old time’s sake.” Calburn led them over to one of the construct flasks, a huge glass sphere on a square metal pedestal like a truncated pyramid. “You know, you didn’t have to wait for me to perfect the regrowth technique,” he said as he knelt to check the dials on one side of the pedestal. “It would’ve been way quicker for you to just grow a new construct.”

           “I know,” said Wygar, laying a hand on the sphere and peering through at the huge shape floating in the green fluid behind the glass. “But at the risk of sounding like a tantruming five-year-old, I didn’t want a new construct. I wanted mine back.”

           “Having his original skull with the summoning stone still in place did simplify it a lot,” said Calburn. “Right, here we go. Better wait for him to dry off before you go in for a hug.” With a small grunt of effort, he pulled the lever to open the grille at the base of the sphere. Pipes beneath the floor gurgled as the fluid drained away and the construct sank out of sight into the metal pedestal. It took a couple of minutes until the whole flask was totally empty of fluid and Calburn drew back the bolt to release the pedestal gate. It slid down into the floor like an inverted portcullis, and the wheeled pallet behind rolled out on its rails into the open.

           Wygar held his breath. Una silently took his hand.

           “He might be a little smarter than you remember,” said Calburn, watching as the ribcage heaved in the decanted construct’s first deep breath. “I tried to use the same steps as much as possible… but I’m a lot better at this than you.”

           Long limbs unfolded one by one, dripping viscous green spell-fluid onto the concrete floor. Pupilless lemon-yellow eyes opened. Pointed ears flicked as if deterring an insect. Finally, the reborn Rathus got to his feet and shook the last of the fluid from his shaggy ginger coat.

           Wygar let his breath out in a rush and stepped forward. Rathus turned his head to study him, first out of one eye and then the other. Smiling, Wygar ran his hand over the green oval of stone embedded in the construct’s forehead and up to his ears, combing his fingers through the long fur. “Welcome back, old friend. It’s good to see you again.”

           “He’ll still need a new harness,” warned Calburn.

           “Yes, of course. Can you have it ready before we leave for Stonehead?”

           “Easy, there are plenty of saddles in the storerooms.” Calburn took a measuring tape from one of the many pockets on his broad belt. “Leave him here for now – actually, move him over to the wall – and I’ll see how long all the straps need to be.”

           “You’re a lifesaver, Cal. Apart from anything else, we might need him to carry the luggage…”

           Fayn met them at the College gates on the way home. “How did the decanting go?”

           Wygar leant down to kiss her, to Una’s visible but unvoiced distaste. “With no problems at all – Rathus is back on his feet and just waiting for his new harness. How was the library?”

           “Mostly without problems,” said Fayn with a small grimace. “We’ve sorted all the misshelved books – none of us are sure how a volume about human reproductive anatomy-”

           “Ma-a-am…”

           “-ended up in the Portals section of all places – but a few books some apprentices borrowed are still missing. Matron Inkfoot is going to help search the dormitories once everyone’s left for the summer.”

           “You haven’t been roped in for that?” asked Wygar.

           “No, no, Bowen has it covered. Any delays getting away on holiday won’t be my fault.”

           Wygar chuckled and wrapped one arm around her waist. “C’mon, let’s get home. I’ve got a few ideas for a celebratory start-of-holidays dinner.”

           The next few days passed quickly. Calburn finished Rathus’s harness as promised, and with the construct’s help it didn’t take long to get everyone and their suitcases down to the portal exchange in the Windstone district, where Wygar’s College yearmate Caradoc held court as senior supervisor.

           “I see your hair’s growing back,” was Caradoc’s first greeting. Wygar didn’t exactly scowl, but he did lower his eyelids slightly. His mane-like haircut, a souvenir of his time with the centaurs, had indeed been growing out for more than a year, but the shaven sides of his head still had some time to go until they caught up with the rest of his three-foot-long ponytail. Caradoc grinned and gave him a friendly thump on the shoulder. “Waiting room’s that way – the guard will check your tickets at the door. The ten o’clock gate to Kiraan, right?”

           Fayn nodded. “No delays?”

           “No, we should get it open right on schedule. Though we always send the wagons through before the foot traffic, so you’ll have to wait your turn.”

           As promised, the guard checked their travel papers and tickets, and sent them through to wait with a few dozen other travellers all bound for the Imperial City.

           “Portals,” muttered Una.

           “What’s that, sweetheart?” said Wygar absently. Fayn closed her eyes and folded her hands behind her head, propping her feet up on her suitcase.

           “Nothing, really,” said Una. “Just… thinking about the last time one of our family left home through a portal.”

           “Ah. I see.” Wygar sighed. On Una’s other side, Fayn kept her eyes closed, but something about the set of her head suggested she was listening. “I can’t promise you that nothing bad is going to happen,” said Wygar quietly. “You’re old enough to know that. But – it is very unlikely.”

           “And anything that does happen, we’ll face as a family this time,” said Fayn, opening her eyes. She hugged Una close with an arm around her shoulders; it was a mark of her unease that she didn’t shrug it off with ten-year-old pride.

           “You’ll feel better once we get there,” said Wygar. He joined the hug on Una’s other side, sandwiching her between him and Fayn, and gave her a little squeeze. “That, I can promise.”

           Una closed her eyes for a few seconds, breathing slowly and deeply, and clearly felt better, for she finally scoffed as expected and wriggled out of the hug. Wygar and Fayn shared a glance over her head and managed not to laugh.

           “Here,” said Wygar as Caradoc’s voice announced that the Kiraan gate was ready for the foot traffic to pass through. “Time to go.”

           Una squared her shoulders, hefted her suitcase, and led the way to the tall granite arch of the Kiraan portal.

           The portal exchange on the far side, backed by the full might of the Imperial economy, was far bigger and more elaborate than the one they had just left. Like a temple to commerce, carved stone pillars held up the vaulted ceiling while the solid steel of the portal arches had been decorated with intricate patterns in polished brass.

           Outside the cool shade of the portal exchange, the Imperial City sweltered in a Kiraani summer. Fayn winced and pulled up the hood of her cloak, as much against the crowds as the sun. Even Una edged a little closer. Wygar took Una’s hand and drew Fayn in against his side. “The train station’s just over there,” he said gently. “It’ll be cooler and quieter up in the mountains.”

    ��      The Imperial rail system had expanded dramatically in the years since its inception. At first, there had only been a handful of routes linking the major cities of the Kiraani Plain together, with a few lonely lines snaking further afield. Now the network stretched across the bulk of the continent, its steel rails winding as far afield as Kesari on the southern coast of Mwituni and even, with the help of an ambitious series of tunnels and bridges through the lower peaks of the Dragon’s Teeth and across the sea lochs, connecting Duncraig to the Imperial heartlands more firmly than portals or sea lanes could hope. Stormhaven itself had refused a connection, but a small station town had sprung up on the far side of the Darkwald, and rumour had it that the Emperor was in careful negotiations with the King of Huaxia about the possibility of adding a few extra trade routes. Even the iron oxen had improved, growing faster and stronger until the great constructs could haul the trains at well over a hundred miles an hour. A few places were still off the network: the vast marshlands of the Gorsfen on the western coast and the Kaltara Basin by the Inland Sea had, so far, defeated the ingenuity of even Kiraan’s finest engineers.

           The line up to Stonehead was slower and more winding than those across the plains, roughly following the upper course of the river. Now and then it crossed back and forth across deep gorges on elegant bridges or cut through rocky spurs in tunnels, but for the most part it hugged the hillsides on narrow stone terraces that followed the contours of the land. Una spent the entire hours-long journey with her nose glued to the window of their compartment, spellbound by the scenery and bobbing back and forth as she tried to catch a glimpse of the Stone River rushing through the gorge below. Fayn just went to sleep, curled up on her seat with her head cushioned on Wygar’s lap. Wygar himself settled down to read his book, idly stroking Fayn’s hair with one hand.

           At last, the train pulled into Stonehead Station. Fayn jolted awake as the brake van kicked in and the train lurched to a halt, steam gently rising from the iron oxen’s heat vents.

           “Wha-”

           “We’re here,” said Wygar.

           Una, evidently over her apprehension, all but bounced out of her seat in her hurry to fetch her suitcase from the overhead racks. Not even the irritating realisation that she wasn’t tall enough to reach it could suppress her for long, and almost as soon as Wygar got it down for her she was out of the compartment and making her way to the doors.

           “Slow down, Una!” called Fayn, half laughing. “We still need to find the hotel!”

           She waited on the platform – rather less than patiently – until they had all disembarked, then led the way out of the station. The view stopped her in her tracks.

           Stonehead lay nestled in a valley with sides so steep they were only degrees away from being cliffs, huddled around the northern end of a deep, ribbon-shaped lake decorated by the brightly-coloured sails of small boats. Tier upon tier of streets rose up the hillsides, while bridges of stone and steel crossed over the gorge that split the town in half. The towering waterfall that carved it cascaded from the lip of a small lake perched above the town; above that, a whole staircase of more pools and waterfalls led further up into the mountains, all the way to the quiet spring where the Stone River was first born. Beyond the town, the valley sides were densely forested where they weren’t too steep for roots to take hold; hiking trails snaked amongst ancient pines, down to quiet beaches on the lakeside and up to the waterfalls above. Even further up, beyond the source, distant peaks of the Dragon’s Teeth gleamed white against the blue sky.

           “So, what do you think?” asked Wygar, resting a hand on Una’s shoulder.

           “That’s… it’s… Wow.”

           Wygar grinned. “We did hope you’d like it. You see that big white building on the top street there, near the waterfall?”

           “Yeah?”

           “That’s our hotel. I’m assured it has the best views in the whole town.”

           “I’ll have to take your word for that, my love,” said Fayn, gesturing towards her eyes, “but I can’t fault their location.” She checked that Una wasn’t looking and went up on her toes to peck a kiss against Wygar’s jaw. “Let’s go get settled in.”

           The ‘room’ they had booked at the hotel turned out to be more of a little suite; as well as a bathroom and a double bedroom, it had a box-room with a single bed for Una and a small but comfortable living area with tall glass doors leading out to a balcony.

           “Don’t climb the railing!” yelped Wygar as Una rushed onto the balcony to do exactly that. She gave him a look of deep scorn over her shoulder, but did as she was told and settled for folding her arms over the top. Wygar and Fayn leant on it to either side of her.

           “Do you like it?” asked Fayn.

           Una pretended to give it some careful thought, before she grinned and nodded firmly. “Yeah. This is going to be good.”  

***

           “Oh, it all used to be so much easier out here. We could just rush a caravan, grab some loot, and melt away into the forest like we were never there at all.” Sparks, flying up from a small, nearly smokeless campfire as a long knife stirred the embers. “But then the Empire built their railways, the tourists started coming, the town got bigger… Feels like every year they push the frontier a little further.”

           “Mm.”

           “Don’t make those noises. Like you’re old enough to remember how things used to be. Gods, what I’d give to pack up the camp and have you take us both home… I spent enough time in these hills as a youngster, running with the bandit clans. But now the bandit clans are all but gone. Still plenty of loot, but much harder to get away with it.” A deep sigh. “But the Lady gave her orders, and if we come back empty-handed… Still, I can’t help but feel she was just trying to get rid of us.”

           A gasp.

           “Oh, come on, you’ve been thinking it too.”

           “No, it’s not that, it’s – come and look through the spyglass!”

           A groan, then footsteps scrambling up a rough, lashed-together wooden ladder. “This better not be another false al- oh. Great gods.”

           “You know what this means? We can go home.”

           “Well, maybe.” A long, slow, hissing breath. “Don’t go getting ahead of yourself, lass. There’s a few steps we need to take before then, and they’re going to take a fair bit of luck and some careful planning…”

***

           Stonehead was a relaxing place to spend a holiday. They rose every morning, after a night in the suite’s incredibly comfortable beds, to enjoy a leisurely and generous breakfast in the hotel’s dining room before setting out for whatever they had planned for the day. Una signed up for all manner of activities from rock-climbing on the cliffs around the waterfalls and sailing on the lake to archery in the hotel gardens and pony-trekking along the forest trails. Fayn preferred to start each day – after breakfast – with a stroll down to one of the more secluded beaches and a long swim in the lake. The water, as Wygar had predicted, was freezing, but the thick fur of her otter form held up to it easily. For his part, Wygar was content to do some exercises on the balcony and then relax with a good book until Fayn returned from her swim, when they would both leave the hotel for a wander through the streets, finding little cafes in odd corners and picking up the occasional souvenir.

           Then, two days before their train back to Kiraan and the waiting portal to Stormhaven, the comfortable holiday routine was harshly interrupted.

           Fayn did not come back from the lake.

~~~

:O

Zar (the Emperor) has spent the first decade of his reign investing heavily in infrastructure development, and it’s paid off nicely; both the rail system and the portal network have come a long way since their humble and somewhat experimental beginnings, and the greater ease and speed of transport has both strengthened links across and beyond the Empire and resulted in a large decrease in bandit activity in all but the wildest reaches of the continent.

Not to say there aren’t any bandits left; they’re just having to be a bit more creative about it.

[hogwartslessons-blog]

POTIONS | September 15th | Lesson #6 | Back To The Start

Today we will be discussing ingredients: magical, mundane, and transitional. This may seem a simple topic, but it’s important to recognize the difference between the three categorizations, though all three broadly encompass a range of animal, plant, and mineral ingredients. Transitional ingredients are, in my opinion, the most fascinating, as we are still have more to discover about their hidden properties and composition.

Heads on Science Apart (Magical Ingredients)

Magical ingredients, as the name suggests, are ingredients already imbued with magical properties in their natural state. Quite often these ingredients derive from magical creatures, although there are also many plants that possess their own inherent magical properties.

You will find that magical ingredients are often much faster in taking effect than mundane pills or creams. This is not simply an inexplicable side effect of magic, but rather because the ingredients’ magical properties tend to temporarily speed up metabolic reactions within the body. Metabolism refers to the processes that the body utilizes to release energy that is used to sustain life and grow, often from consumed food, as well as eliminate remaining waste products from the body. Most often, your body will break down these nutrients at a fairly steady rate, although this rate varies based on the individual. However, it has been found that the consumption or application of magical ingredients often provides a catalyst and speeds up this rate of metabolic consumption until the magical ingredient has been absorbed into the bloodstream.

While the effects of magical ingredients are also inherently more intense than those of the mundane, this increased absorption and bodily processing of the ingredient also contributes to magical ingredients and Potions utilizing them having a much more intense effect than mundane ingredients. Imagine a “time delay” capsule, for example. This pill releases a certain amount of a medication or cure every thirty minutes. Thus, the impact of the medication is gradual and somewhat mild. Now imagine you added an element to the pill that would make it disperse all of the medication at once. The impact would be drastic, and both effects and side effects would be felt much more intensely. Often, even when utilizing the healing effects of mundane ingredients, adding a magical one will provide this jolt. On the one hand, the increasing of positive effects and decreasing of negative ones will happen much more quickly, but this rapid shift can be fairly brutal on the body. This is also why the very young, very old, pregnant, and those with otherwise weakened immune systems are often discouraged from taking Potions without consulting a physician.

Pulling Your Puzzles Apart (Mundane Ingredients)

The Magical community is often hesitant to give appropriate praise to the mundane, be it the study of science, the cultivation of the land, or the application of non-magical ingredients in cures or Potions. However, mundane ingredients provide a biologically gentler alternative for those who care to avoid the harsh impact that magical ingredients so often cause. Take, for example, a stomach ache. There are powerful Potions that will remove stomach aches, nausea, or cramps in a matter of minutes. However, many of these Potions, if used over long periods of time, can have permanent effects on the digestive system, and in the long term can weaken the stomach. It’s possible that this comes as a result of the body beginning to rely too much on the Potion for proper digestion and weakening in its own ability to operate. In contrast, ginger, a mundane root, can relieve digestive inflammation as well as ease motion sickness. It does not have the drastic effects of a Potion, and would not cure extreme stomach ailments, but it is also mild enough to drink in tea every day if one chooses. Another positive point is that young children can take it, and it’s exceedingly rare to have a ginger allergy. Also, unlike many Stomach Curing Potions, which taste rather unpleasant and must have mundane items added when brewing in order to make them stomachable (so to speak), ginger candies are often delicious on their own. This concept of mundane additives brings up another point when considering mundane and magical ingredients. I believe this is a point that may have been mentioned in passing in Herbology, but deserves further discussion. Mundane ingredients are often added to Potions even when they are not in the initial ingredients list. This is often to improve flavor, particularly in the case of lavender or mint. However, mundane ingredients can also often be added to counter slightly unpleasant side effects in Potions. If, for example, a Potion causes stomach distress in curing an ailment, sometimes Potioneers will put ginger, rose, or another mild and mundane ingredient in order to temper this effect. There are, of course, exceptions, and one should never add a supplementary ingredient to a Potion without verifying that it will not ruin the end product, but mundane ingredients often do not throw off the temperament of a Potion. Magical ingredients, on the other hand, tend to be more finicky, for lack of a better term. While mundane ingredients, as they are much milder and do not possess that intense magical spark, often interact well with other magical and mundane ingredients, adding the wrong magical ingredient to a Potion can have fatal effects. While it is important to be careful when adding mundane ingredients to a Potion to improve appearance, smell, taste, or mitigate side effects, it is crucial to never try to add an unlisted magical ingredient without consulting a talented Potioneer first. This greatly has to do with the energy magic releases that is able to break and reform chemical bonds that alters the identity of certain molecules in a way that simple cauldron heat usually cannot. It can be difficult even for some talented Potioneers to predict how magic will reconstruct the bonds of two otherwise innocuous magical ingredients.

  Questions of Science and Progress (Transitional Ingredients)

Finally, we reach what are sometimes called transitional ingredients. These are ingredients such as dragonfly thoraxes, which on their own, have no magical qualities. However, when used in conjunction with magical ingredients as well as the magic of a Witch or Wizard, will display magical properties themselves. Dragonflies are known to be beautiful, albeit mundane, creatures: they hold symbolism of transformation and change in many cultures, and Muggles often theorize they have their own hidden magic, but they never truly show a strong magical inclination.

Creating a mixture or even some non-magical compounds with dragonfly thoraxes will not give the consumer any additional magical boost, beyond an extra taste of protein. However, when brewed in Potions with other magical ingredients, the magic involved in the rest of the process is able to trigger some hidden magical quality in dragonfly anatomy. The thoraxes, for example, are used in Potions for energy and endurance, for example the Girding Potion. The wings are often used for concoctions assisting with speed (of thought and action).

It is still unknown what may cause this latent magical quality in certain plants and species. It is likely something in their genetic composition, but it’s unclear what that “something” is. Some theories suggest that these mark the signs of an early development of magic in species that were once not magical, but are slowly developing a magical ability of some sort. Remember, in your History of Magic class, you also read about the theories for the beginning of our own magic, so species possessing magic has been proven as something that can evolve and develop over time. Some even hypothesize that dragons were once much like the extinct creatures of the dinosaur period, but over a much longer period evolved into the beings of incredible magic that they now are.

Others suggest that this hibernating form of magic is simply another expression of magical gift or talent. Perhaps this spark adds a certain quality to the dragonfly’s own life in a way we cannot yet perceive that does not have to do with perceivable spellcasting or grand displays of magic or power. This magic that we cannot perceive may be what draws Muggles and Wizards alike to these ethereal creatures: sensing that there is some breed of allure or magic that we have yet to access or understand. I tend to be of the opinion that, as many forms of magic as we see in explicitly magical beings and creatures, from Centaurs to House Elves to Witches and Wizards, it makes more sense that many other expressions of a magical gene of some sort exist in the world.

There is another more romantic inclination that some have, though it isn’t currently a very popular theory. The thought is that these small creatures with untapped magical talent were once very powerful elementals on Earth. Or, in a more biological sense that they were much like fairies, although some folk tales tell of them being much more powerful than even we Witches and Wizards are. Something happened to the magic in these tales, either a great suffering and loss as a community or a simple fading of faith and power, and they slowly diminished. Eventually magic became a vestigial organ, or a part of the creature that once held use, but slowly fell into idleness. An example of this is our own appendix. Some used to speak of the little inexplicable displays of magic in the world this way: that powerfully benevolent magical beings once ruled our world, but a great sadness caused them to diminish and eventually disappear. This is, of course, the least likely of scenarios, but in lieu of answers, some will (entirely understandably) hold whichever notion that gives them the most happiness.