#do you understand my dilemma/j

[battlecriesandroses]

i hate spring i hate summer when will the pain end

[dduane]

Hi! Possibly a bit of a weird question for you, but I'm trying to collect all of YW in hardbacks before my old omnibus finally gives out, and I was wondering - do you know if books 1-4 ever got published in hardback with the Harcourt black base/white text cover art? So many websites use blank placeholders that I can't tell if what I'm searching for even exists!

It’s not weird at all. I get occasional inquiries (especially from librarians) about how to get their hands on complete hardcover sets of the Young Wizards books.

Let's make this simpler from the start by establishing that in the forty-plus year history of the series, there has never been a unified hardcover edition of all the YW books, from any of their publishers... mostly because there've been too many publishers over that stretch of time.

Let's take the books in order, as far as possible, and you'll see what happened.

The books' first home was at Delacorte Press, an imprint of Dell Publishing. So You Want To Be A Wizard was published in hardcover in 1983, the Deep Wizardry hc in 1985, and the High Wizardry hc in 1990, with these covers. (The art, respectively, by David Wiesner, Darrell Sweet, and Neal McPheeters.)

All of these editions are now difficult to find in good condition, especially SYWTBAW—which as a first book in a series by a new/untried author, perhaps understandably had a very small print run and was mostly sold to libraries. (The run might have been as small as 1500 copies. It's hard to tell now, as this wasn't data that was shared with authors in those days.) As a result, most copies of the Delacorte SYWTBAW hc are either very beat up, or (if signed and/or in good condition) relatively expensive. The Delacorte DW and HW hardcovers are a little easier to find, but not that much.

In the early 1990s there was a change in publishing direction at Dell shortly after HW came out. The publisher's interest had pivoted toward wanting more bestselling authors; so they jettisoned many then-new or midlist authors so as to be able to pay the best-selling authors more. (In this particular micro-bonfire of the vanities, Dell's stupidity in throwing Jane Yolen overboard, FFS, astounds me to this day.) So though the books continued to be published as paperbacks at other Dell imprints (Laurel-Leaf, Yearling) through the mid-1990s, that was the end of the Dell hardcovers.

The next hardcover publication was therefore in 1990, from GuildAmerica / SF Book Club. Support Your Local Wizard contains SYWTBAW, DW and HW, and was a Book Club bestseller: it sold a quarter million copies and set a record as their most popular new-member-requested book that lasted until they went out of business. As a result, there are a lot of these books around.

Also in plentiful supply is The Young Wizards, which SFBC Fantasy published in 2001. (NB that a lot of sources list this as being a 1984 book, which is incorrect. As it also contains, besides the first three, A Wizard Abroad and The Wizard's Dilemma, this makes it impossible to have been published any sooner than 2001.)

Anyway, after that, things get a bit simpler. In the mid 1990s the series was picked up by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / Harcourt Trade Publishers' new YA imprint Magic Carpet Books, which began republishing earlier works. Possibly the oddest of these was a small-format (mmpb-sized) hc of SYWTBAW, which turns up here and there used. (I really need to ask Jane some time what the heck the thinking was on this book...)

...Anyway. A Wizard Abroad had until then been published only in the UK (in a mass-market mmpb from Transworld/Corgi); its first hardcover came out from the SF Book Club/GuildAmerica in 1993, Dell having passed on acquiring it. (The cover on this one was done by the fabulous David Cherry, artist and brother of my old colleague C. J. Cherryh.) Harcourt did another of the unusual small-format hardcovers, this time of AWAb, in 1997—testing the waters, I think. Then, when that sold strongly, they went straight to full-size hardcovers with The Wizard's Dilemma (with art from then until now being done by Cliff Nielsen) and have stayed with that format since.

Harcourt also did a lovely 25th anniversary hardcover edition of So You Want To Be A Wizard in 2003, which is easy to find inexpensively. I strongly suspect this republication trend would have continued with Deep Wizardry and High Wizardry when their respective anniversaries came around. But unfortunately the Magic Carpet program wound down soon afterwards, and the most recent hc volumes have been published simply as HMH, with no apparent interest at the publisher in going back to fill the holes in the hardcover backlist.

...So you can see, you've got kind of a mixed bag to deal with in terms of what you want. Availability has also been something of an issue, as the books are considered pretty deep backlist by Harcourt's current owner (HarperCollins), and warehouse supplies of some books in the series have been iffy.

So. The simplest I can make things for you is to help you avoid dealing with large corporate warehouses (because when some of these hc editions were preparing to go out of print, whenever possible I bought up the remaining stock to spare it from being pulped). Signed Books Direct—by which I mean the Ikea shelves out back in our boot room—has ample mint-condition supplies of many of the Harcourt hardcovers (though not Games Wizards Play, unfortunately: we've run out of those). Ignore the site’s front page inventory, which needs to be updated. Instead, just drop an email to the SBD email address and query me about what you're looking for.

HTH!

[queer-ragnelle]

hi I was wondering what your opinion is on how to deal with anachronisms in arthurian legend. so many stories include jousting—which didn't exist in early medieval wales. which historic kingdoms do you chose to include, and from which period, and what if two kingdoms sound really cool and you really want to mention them both but one existed in england circa 500ad and one existed around the norman conquest? thank you!

Hey!

I could've sworn I answered this before but I must've been thinking of a conversation in my writing group. Anyway the short answer is:

Do whatever you want! Anachronism is a feature not a bug! Harness it!

The fact is, all of Arthurian Legend is anachronistic and it's great. We don't even have concrete proof that Arthur, as we understand him, existed. We don't have written sources from the era Arthur supposedly lived in, only artifacts. There are some sporadic texts throughout the early Medieval period which mention Arthur, then the majority of what we understand as part of the Legend began with the work of 12th century authors. When Chrétien de Troyes was writing his stories, he depicted the world he lived in. The same goes for Marie of France and Wirnt von Grafenburg and Sir Thomas Malory and of course the many many Anonymous authors throughout the entire Middle Ages. They wrote about knights as they, personally, perceived them, as if the Saxon conflict took place in the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, etc centuries. After that, modern authors did similarly, while keeping the setting Medieval.

I have found that reading the forewords, author's notes, and letters of modern writers tackling this same dilemma has helped me tremendously. I have a deep respect and admiration for John Steinbeck, both his The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights and his other novels captivated me, so I cherish his philosophy regarding the creative process. In letter to his editor, he wrote:

He gets it!! Everyone is writing for their audience. Themselves, too, but with special attention to the current era and what that looks like.

When it comes to the nitty gritty stuff, you'll drive yourself crazy if you focus too much on what's "possible." Now Persia Woolley and I have our creative differences, but in her author's note at the start of book 1, Child of the Northern Spring, she wrote:

This makes a lot of sense to me. She has adopted a similar method as J. R. R. Tolkien did regarding the stories "coming out of Middle Earth." No, a Hobbit may not have called the circular green thing covering the entrance/exit to his home "a door," but that is the name of the object as the reader understands it, so that is what the author or "translator" has decided to call it.

In the end, you'll just have to sit down and make decisions. If you intend to use the names as they were in the era Arthur lived, it'll be more historically accurate, but unless you also provide a map and name key as Edward Frankland did in Arthur The Bear of Britain, you risk confusing your readers who only comprehend these locations in their Modern form. On the other hand, if you use exclusively Modern names, there's a chance it could break the immersion of your readers who perceive the story as Medieval.

I personally like to have of Medieval and Modern terms as well as technologies and cultural aspects. The fact is that we simply don't know enough about history to ever be 100% accurate about anything, so breath easier and offer yourself some allowances. I haven't scanned this book yet, but in the author's note of Phyllis Ann Karr's The Follies of Sir Harald, she wrote:

This is especially funny considering I don't recall any mention of a specific year to which the "historical accuracies" could be compared, but I assume she means the 12th century, when Chrétien de Troyes lived.

It comes down to what sort of story you want to write. Is it going to be Historical Fiction as Edward Frankland, Persia Woolley, and Bernard Cornwell wrote? Or will it be more loosely "Medieval" such as Cherith Baldry, John Steinbeck, and Phyllis Ann Karr wrote?

It really comes down to your own point of interest which kingdoms you include. I generally tried to stay accurate to the 4th-6th century, a huge 2 century window, which gave me enough wiggle room to pick and choose some names that made clear what I was talking about. Most if not all ports and islands retained modern names for ease of comprehension: Beirut, Isle of Wight, Mainland Orkney, and even Drake's Island, which is named for Sir Francis Drake, who wasn't born until the 16th Century, simply because its older name, St. Michael from the 12th Century, was not only too recent to be "accurate" anyway, but may have caused confusion with the giant of Mont St. Michael, which was of more importance to me than the impossible accuracy of landmasses in the Plymouth Sound. I did away with wooden longhouses in favor of stone castles; some I "built" on top of abandoned Roman forts that can still be visited today, others I invented completely from scratch, each brick and syllable original to my work. Many aspects called for improvision, so I did the best I could to make it all appear cohesive, even if historically those names or practices or fashions or whatever weren't actually as synchronized as my writing would have you believe.

This applies to characters too.

I refer to the main character as Gawain, although he claims it derives from the older name Gwalchmai. Other Mabinogion characters retain their Welsh names, such as Owain, Morfydd, and Bedwyr. Yet others take after their French names, such as Kay, Perceval, and Mordred. I even sometimes use both names, such as with Welsh Cynon/French Calogrenant, who was named the former at birth and referred to as such by Morfydd, but then Christened as the latter, which is what the majority of the cast call him. The Vulgate gives Yvain, son of Urien and Morgan le Fay, a bastard half brother called Yvain the Bastard. Because I had already changed the first character's name to Owain, so too has his brother's name been changed to Owain, as well as introducing a moniker of his own to more clearly identify him as a separate character without constantly referring to him as a bastard. They are from Rheged, but Owain the Bastard is known as FitzEden, as he was born in his mother's house near the Eden River. If you look it up, Rheged/Cumbria are the same general area, so I've linked the character to it through a name I made up for him. Owain FitzEden he now is. Did people use the term "Fitz" in the 5th century? No, they didn't have surnames. Was the river called Eden at the time? Probably not. But I did it anyway because I'm not writing in the 5th century, I'm writing now, for you, for me! And because I like the character enough to "bend the rules." It's not like historical Owain mab Urien had a pet lion, anyway!

It doesn't matter if these characters have "era appropriate" names or come from locations which didn't exist until recently. Say Lancelot is from Brittany or Less Britain or Gaul or France or Benwick or the Lake Kingdom, who cares! I've seen them all in one book or movie or another and they all register the same to me: Across the channel. Foreign. A new guy.

I had to do all of this twice, once for Medieval Britain and again for Medieval Persia. So trust me when I say it's time consuming. You're going to take a lot of notes for your own reference that your readers will never see but will help you keep an internal consistency once you decide what kingdoms and names to keep and what to avoid. The key is to stay accurate within your own world. Even if two kingdoms didn't exist at the same time, if you want to include them, do so, but then you have to follow through with that. Your readers will figure it out so long as you avoid giving the same area too many different names or accidentally changing a location's name between scenes. Locals may call their village something the outsiders don't, that's cool for worldbuilding, but every time you do it, you're making a bid on your reader's ability to hold all that information. So do so sparingly and with good reason.

Reading helps a lot. All the books I've mentioned do a good job of this and would be useful tools for understanding what your preferences are and what the vibe of your story will be. I hope that answers your question and gives you a bunch to think about! Take care. :^)

[dorislitterbox]

SERIES: Echo Of Dreams

Synopsis: 7 dream, a group of friends at school, has caught themselves in a dilemma. A new virus outbreak has started near their school, the seven of them will have to stick together in order to survive.

TW: character death, zombies, death, gore (blood, bones, decay), angst, anything that irks you about zombies, offing ones own life.

masterlist

©DORISLITTERBOX all rights reserved

do not copy my work. 1k+ words

A/N: Hey cznies, hope you like the first part of this series, if you enjoyed it please like, reblog and follow. Updates should be pretty frequent.

1. Everyone Hates Mondays

The weeks leading up to summer vacation were tedious to say the least. A group of seven boys had a knack for skipping morning classes on Mondays, choosing to meet up at lunch time to engage in a bit of chat until their extracurriculars began.

Mark Lee the designated 'leader' of the group, sat at one of the corners of the table. Usually, he would opt to wear proper school attire but on this particular Monday it was far too hot to wear anything other than the basic dress pants, shirt and vest the school provided. His blonde hair stood out among the crowd of students, who in contrast to him, all wore their hair in natural colors. Chenle sat facing Mark, he had basketball practice in the afternoon so he chose to wear sweatpants and a short sleeved dress shirt for a quick change. Lee Haechan, notorious for being the troublemaker of the group sat next to their leader, complaining, once again, about the texture of the food they got served.

"I just can't understand why our school just won't feed us decent food, this shit has been the same flavorless slop for years" Haechan loudly exclaimed.

"I think the purpose of the food is too keep us alive for the day, not exactly to be a five star Michelin meal" stated Mark. Chenle giggled at the older boys attempts at damage control.

Haechan scoffs, "I should file a complaint to Renjun, I heard he got elected for Head of Student Council, maybe he can take my complaints to the school administrators."

"So you got wind of the news" said Renjun plopping down next to Chenle, " I got Head position".

" I expected nothing less from our model student, congratulations!" Haechan starts to clap loudly in the rather quiet canteen causing other students to join in on his boisterous celebration for his friend. Renjun ducks his head down and silently cursed at him at the poignant display of celebration. The other three wheeze with laughter at Renjun's humiliation, "Now I can get 'my friend is the Head of student council' privileges" Haechan states.

"You wish, I already marked you down for not being in proper school attire". Renjun fires back

"What the heck? you know that this look is my signature style" he said pointing to his black shirt which was an obvious violation of the school dress code, "White washes me out, if I can't be the smartest I can sure as hell be the hottest". The comment collected a cumulative groan from all the boys at the table, " What? it's not like it's a huge problem, I'll just wear my school jacket over it." he says raising his hands.

"What did we miss?" 3 boys approached the table. A tall boy with black hair that was buzzed at the sides, another with light pink hair and one with a dark brown shade. All of three of them had similar broad shoulders and strong statures. "We heard clapping from here and assumed that Haechan was up to one of his antics" joked the black haired boy.

With only six chairs at the table, the boy with the pink hair skillfully plucked an unoccupied chair from an adjacent table and sat down at the head of the table. "I can only assume it's because our class president got Head of StuCo" he teased Renjun, lightly shaking his shoulders.

"How come you three look like a boy band?" questioned Mark, as the three boys wore similarly styled clothes.

The pink haired boy sets down his utensils and clapped to gain the attention of everyone at the table. "Triple J" he says with gusto.

"What!?!" Haechan and Chenle laugh out.

"Ya, stop laughing, it stands for Jaemin, Jeno and Jisung" Jaemin says proudly.

"I mean that's obvious but what's the occasion?" Chenle says.

"We are starting a new gym club at school" Jeno says while digging into his home-cooked meal of chicken breast and rice. Jisung nods in agreement. "It was only right to name it after ourselves".

"I suggested "Narcissism", you know to encourage confidence, but the school administrators said it was too inappropriate for school". Jaemin complains.

Mark who had been on his phone, suddenly stilled in his seat. " Yo guys there's news of some attacks near the school, apparently some kids are fighting... no biting one another?"

"What? that's absurd, probably the weird stoner kids getting freaky" joked Haechan. Jeno, Jaemin and Chenle sharing a laughter at the comment. While Renjun and Jisung got up from their seats and huddled around Mark's phone.

"Bro that's freaky" Jisung said, "Why do they look like that?"

"What if its a zombie outbreak?" Renjun ponders.

"What are you on about?" Haechan rolls his eyes and casts his eyes on Mark's phone, " Wait why do they look like that?"

A loud bang on the canteen window startles the 7 boys. A girl starts to scream at the students from outside, but nothing is heard as the windows were reinforced to be soundproof. Renjun tries to read the lips of the girl. When he manages to decipher her desperate pleas and the words 'help me' escapes his own lips the girl is suddenly thrown to the ground by a boy. The canteen sits in silence. Until blood splatters across the panes of the windows like a gruesome painting. Some scream, some are paralyzed by shock and some get up to access the mauled body.

"Get the fuck up we're getting out of here" states Renjun. Everyone gets up from the table. Jaemin and Jeno gear up with chairs while Haechan fills his pockets with the biscuits that were served to them and Mark proposes they make their way to the second floor and hunker down in a classroom. Their actions are halted by the sound of glass shattering. The world went silent, the window was broken, they were going to get in. The realization washes across the mind of every boy at that table like a cool breeze, leaving them frozen in fear. The words 'run!' pierces their dazed state before they dash out of the doomed canteen.

[the-blossica-fan]

Greetings!

Yeah i remember that Sonetto and Schneider swap art, probably could find it later.

Yk what would be a funnier combo? Lilya and Vertin swapping, or really anyone swapping with Lilya.

Literally the both of them suffering withdrawal; Vertin suffering in Lilya's body with alcohol withdrawals because ofc shes not drinking, and Lilya in Vertin's suffering picrasma withdrawal because she HATES the stuff probably.

Horropedia and Blonney swapping? Idk anything but the pure chaos in it happening, Jessica would IMMEDIATELY know they have swapped but idk the rest? Up to you!

You always give me the best stuff to put my brain to work, I love this!!

Allow me to use my beloved overworked brain for this.

Lilya in Vertin's body would not be able to hold onto the primal need to eat Picrasma Candy. Her mouth feels empty and waters taste like some sugary substance (I believe this happens when you eat too much sugar), her (Vertin's) body NEEDS Picrasma, but oh Lord Lilya is NOT eating that shit.

Drinking Vodka has a wrong reaction as well, she ends up on the floor 5 seconds before throwing up. She can't drink, nor does she want to eat Picrasma, she's in mental pain.

Meanwhile, Vertin can't eat Picrasma candy because of not drinking alcoholic beverages. Lilya's body is used to a certain quantity of alcohol, so even if she drinks something light, her (Lilya's) body NEEDS vodka, and Vertin is not Lilya and it tastes like shit so she's having terrible withdrawal symptoms.

She can't even nap it out nor concentrate on her work, her body demands alcohol and the nausea is way too much. She had to drink way too much low alcohol drink in order to get it to hold on for a while. She was drunk.

Horropedia and Blonney, my Lord...

Blonney HATES it. She feels so sweaty and she can't see shit every time she takes off his glasses. She definitely took off that sweater and wore something more comfortable on his skin, she's also complaining so much about his skin. He sleeps well, that's for sure, but my Lord is he greasy. He eats junk and she eats healthy.

Horropedia Is definitely more curious on this change from an investigative perspective. Blonney's chest is big so... He's experiencing the pain of women with big breasts and he doesn't like it

"Blondie, how can you live with this?! This is, really painful. I can't lie on my stomach!"

"Could you PLEASE stop mentioning this?"

They have so many troubles regarding each other's bodies but that's because of the gender of each person, and Horropedia's lack of skin care which Blonney will fix. Horropedia doesn't hate the body but he definitely wasn't made for it.

And Blonney is such a lesbian she can't hold onto this body any longer.

Jessica definitely has a dilemma. She loves Blonney and the softness of her body... Blonney's body is Horropedia. What is she going to do?! She throws a couple punches at Horropedia though

"Oh, finally, you don't smell like sweat and dust!"

"Hey! How dare you? I don't smell like that!"

"You're right, it's worse."

She definitely hangs out with Blonney more but, in her mind, she's probably like "I miss Blonney's soft body 😞", but she's not hugging Horropedia.

Mmmm, as for a couple extra body swaps... Matilda and J.

Matilda would be so proud in J's body, definitely happier to be taller and presuming her (his) muscles. She also loves his style so she's not changing anything.

J is quite in pain. He is now small and in the body of a silly girl, he has fun being small and the fact Matilda is pretty strong even with her body type fascinates him. He's working out in her body to have some muscles since Matilda had a lot of work and doesn't exercise outside of work.

"Hah, I can finally understand why you never appear in photos. You're so small you can't even see the camera"

"Consider your next words carefully! The great Matilda is in care of YOUR body and isn't afraid to damage it!"

And maybe Isolde and Marcus! You would think it's Isolde and Kakania, oh Lord no I'm not THAT cruel 😞

Marcus can't breathe in Isolde's body, she still wears corsets, and they're very, very tight. Marcus is actually pretty worried for her safety but it seems she's used it, meanwhile Marcus is suffering. Yeah Isolde's lungs are used to it, but Marcus' brain is not and Lord does it hurt to breathe. She did take Hoffman's coat from Isolde and ended up wearing it over Isolde's nightgown as the only clothing that's comfortable for her.

Isolde didn't find any issue with Marcus' body, not like she has any complaints to make. Without the coat, it just feels so comfortable and calming. She feels like she could be peaceful forever. She can't sing and can't hear the ghost's voices so she's quite peaceful. Drinking tea by the window, equally as gloomy as ever but you can feel more comfortable.

Oh, by the way, Marcus is having a fistfight with Heinrich's ghost while she's in Isolde's body.

[simpjaes]

u liking metal aswell is wild cuz as u said people who like metal usually dont fw kpop & vice versa 😭 people who cut others off cuz of the music they listen to are sooo odd i’ll never understand that!! i mean who cares cuz at the end of the day ure the one enjoying the music, not them

best believe if u yap abt ggs or female soloists again my ass will be all up in ur inbox ..

me talkin bout music n sharing songs i love:

i don't think i said ppl who like metal usually don't fuck with kpop, as i know there's a huuuuuuuuge amount of ppl who listen to both music genres but like, i was strictly into metal for a long time, and most of my friends were metal heads and met through bands i loved, i guess it could be expected when i pop out with the super junior rokkugo back in the day like "THIS MY FAVE SONG RN"

i can't tell you how many friends i lost because of the elitism when it comes to music. don't get me wrong, im egotistical as fuck when it comes to what i listen to but i also don't judge until the judgement is dropped on me lmfao. i did lose some friends even when i was still a metal whore and started my love with dir en grey. always "they're too gay" "they look like women" and "how can u even understand that?!"

those same ppl argued they preferred me when i would fixate on dir en grey rather than big bang and suju (mind you, this was a long time ago. i do not stan super junior.)

either way!!!! im a big fan of music. BIG BIG FAN OF MUSIC!!!!!!!!!!! boy groups are usually what i gravitate towards in terms of kpop but i very much enjoy girl groups too.

MUSIC SHARE TIME:

GG & SOLOIST FAVES: bad boy | sweet juice | zombie | silent night | noir | dilemma | lalalilala | not kpop but this song is saaaaaaur good, LISTEN TO IT.

BG & SOLOIST FAVES: slow dive | up | all for love | yestoday (still one of my all time faves) | don't leave me | lullaby | wild fire | opening sequence | cyber punk | moonwalker | perfume | flicker | i can keep going but you'll see how biased i am to boy groups lmfao. not included: taemin, shinee, exo, j-hope, agust d, jackson wang, dawn, pentagon, b.a.p, tvxq, kang daniel, oneus, xikers.........and im rambling

OTHER FAVES: mosaic shojo | everything is all lies | to the hellfire | shokubeni | neo ark | ruten no tou

I STAND BY THE STATEMENT THAT THESE COULD BE CONSIDERED THE BEST SONGS EVER MADE!

[soup-for-ghosts]

talk ant temenos. for the ask thing :3

First impression

something along the lines of “wow this guy is so funny what is wrong with him (affectionate)” and the murder mystery neuron kicking in

Impression now

oh so THAT’S what’s wrong with him. ok. genuinely one of my favorite characters ever, and uh. also ow? what the heck?? I wasn’t prepared for a personal callout post!!

but yeah temenos is such a good character… and while I do have a few gripes with how his story was handled, I have no gripes with how he himself was written. and those ex skills… so many thoughts about those… I could go into more depth into my thoughts on him but I’ll save that for another place at another time

Favorite moment

all of them /j

ok but seriously, I loooooove the scenes with arcanette. I hate her. I hate her so much, but oooooo those scenes are so goooooood… the placid mask dialogue hits… I didn’t trust mindt from the beginning, but THIS was something else. him yelling at her not to speak of everyone he’s lost in the process of getting here… gahhh it’s just so good….

Idea for a story

uh?? idk what to put for this

Unpopular opinion

also dunno what to say for this one really

Favorite relationship

ok I have two and yes they’re the obvious ones

first is his relationship with crick which give me the 🤨 look all you want but listen. I’m not even talking about the ship this time, I just mean their general dynamic, which yes is very goofy at times but it’s also so complex and interesting. especially when you get into everything crick tells him in chapter 3 stormhail. I don’t like.. I don’t like crick’s death from a literary perspective, idk I just never enjoyed characters being killed for the sole purpose of making you hate the villain or for the emotional appeal particularly when said character is clearly at their lowest point. meeting temenos lead to crick having to learn to doubt (for lack of a better term pf) everything he has ever known, and that has practically brought him to a pit of despair in chapter 3 stormhail and idk I think he deserved the chance to claw his way out of that pit and actually get to learn what faith really means to him and stuff. and also it would be interesting for temenos’ character if one person survived, he already pushes people away out of fear of losing them, if he thought it was just happening again, but it didn’t, he still lived, how would he react to that? how would he develop and move on from that? idk it’s just more interesting to me, but again, conversation for another day, the important part is, their dynamic is very fun and also genuinely interesting, and I like how their characters develop throughout the game because of each other

the second is everyone’s favorite detective duo, temenos and throné. I am a claudelet temenos truther, so siblingisms real, but besides that, their crossed paths and travel banters really hit me I think. my favorite travel banter of all time is one of theirs, “the wool dilemma,” from throné chapter 3 father’s route. wherein throné asks temenos to tell her a story to get her mind off of all. that. and he tells her about this wool dilemma, where wool keeps the sheep warm, but because of that, a lamb never truly feels the warmth of their parents. throné’s response is “I’m not a sheep,” and that to me speaks volumes. she understood exactly why temenos chose this story to tell her, she understands him perfectly. and that’s saying a lot! temenos has a travel banter with osvald in his chapter 5 where osvald explicitly states that temenos never says what he means and it is very confusing and people are bound to misunderstand him. osvald, resident genius scholar, struggles to understand temenos, but throné understands him perfectly. and then their crossed paths… they both have a lot of pent up grief that they are not really… addressing or conveying and they end up working together to tie loose ends both for themselves and others. alpates…… but yeah, they’re a very good duo and the devs made a very good decision having them as a crossed paths duo. I like them a lot….

Favorite headcanon

silly one, but I always loved the headcanon that his eyes glow blue when he’s doing his little “the truth lies in the flame” thing. it’s just fun to me pf, also it looks sick as hell, especially when it’s used outside of just those segments and in scenes like the battle against kaldena and stuff

[adagioapassionato]

playlist focus. 사는게 지겨워질 때쯤 (when living gets tiring)

So…you’d think that getting recognition from a band you’ve idolised for a year would push you to create more of the same type of content…right? Not for me, apparently. It’s not that I didn’t want to, or don’t have multiple almost-finished pieces about the music I love ready to share with the world. I suppose life got in the way – and when living itself felt exhausting and confusing, I couldn’t focus on creating the way I wanted to.

But I realized a few days ago that music had still carried me through this confusing and tough time in my life. Early in June, when I’d find myself in tears multiple times a week, I compiled a playlist of songs for when the going got too hard and I didn’t feel like carrying on. In this post I describe a few select songs from that list that are particularly close to my heart!

The playlist is named in Korean, after the lyrics of Find Me! by The Poles (of course, one of Daniel’s songs again!) – 사는게 지겨워질 때쯤 , which means ‘when living gets tiring.’ The entire first verse goes, “when living gets tiring/and the world feels like its ending/and taking a breath feels like imagining/because that would be better/find me in this world.” So I guess, it’s the music I come back to when I don’t feel like carrying on, so that I find the strength to move forward again.

There are two categories of songs I added to the playlist. While we feel tired and stressed often, we may look for different kinds of catharsis and comfort, even if the feeling is essentially the same. The first category encompassed sad songs that really describe breaking down, being stressed, being uncertain. They provide a mirror that suggests you’re not alone in your feelings, without forcing any solutions or positivity in your face. The second group of songs provide comforting reassurance: they accept that times are hard, but also feel like a warm hug from a friend assuring you that everything will work out soon.

1. What If… by j-hope

I ended up listening to j-hope’s Jack In The Box album for the first time almost a year after he released it. When I did, I wondered why I’d been depriving myself of listening to an album made with so much heart and emotion. At the same time, though, I felt like his songs had found me at the perfect time – I wouldn’t have connected to them a year ago the way I did now.

The whole album focuses on j-hope’s worries for the future, but the desperation and anxiety for the future conveyed in ‘What If…’ is palpable, from the desperate piano riff to the repeating shouts of “what if, what if, I have no…” in the chorus. j-hope’s focus on the dilemma between staying positive and giving into spiraling anxiety about the future particularly stood out to me. He reflects on whether he can truly call himself by the name ‘hope’, when he often does not really feel hopeful about the future. During a period of uncertainty, I was often told to ‘be positive,’ ‘stay optimistic’ and keep moving forward. However, you’re bound to get exhausted by being positive all the time. This song connected to the frequent periods of confusion and worry I faced, where I wondered whether it was pointless to be so positive all the time in case I’d just end up with nothing anyway. After all, I could hardly see where the road ahead of me was leading. The repeating questions throughout the song – ‘Can I do this? (Let me think) Can I do it?’, “What if I have no hope? What if I have no dream? What I have no house?” echoed my exact worries about beginning a new chapter of my life.

j-hope is someone who can truly call himself ‘hope’, because he understands what it is to want to move forward with optimism, but struggle with it at the same time; to wonder what would happen if all of a sudden, despite your best efforts, you were to lose everything – “what if I have nothing? Can I do that shit?” Even in a song where he expresses the deepest worries of his heart, he echoed my own worries and provided me comfort. I thus held this song, and the Jack In The Box album, very close during this time!

2. Ajj Din Chadheya by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

This song unexpectedly touched my heart during this period too. It directly addresses God, and begs him to end a long period of suffering and frustration. I grew to become more spiritual during this period of my life as it gave me hope, thus, I could see myself asking the very same things of God that this song does. The melodies of the song are sweet and accompanied by a harmonious piano, as though kindly expressing one’s frustrations to God and requesting him to give us his blessings.

The second verse of the song particularly struck me. He sings (translated from Hindi):

“I only asked for what’s mine, What is it to you? It’s not as though I’ve asked you to give me heaven What sort of a God are you, Who only exists in name, That you couldn’t do even this much for me? Please, just let me receive what I want.”

This verse really resonated with me – when you feel as though you’re trying everything you can to get what you want, what you believe you even deserve, but somehow the universe seems to keep it from you. At this point, you can do nothing but ask the universe what is preventing you from getting what you’ve desired for so long. The song beautifully conveys frustration with God by questioning if he even exists, but also has a pleading tone that requests him to finally end this pain and stress. It’s a beautiful take on faith that shows even the most difficult parts of trying to keep it, while still relying on it to pull through a difficult time. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s open, emotional voice beautifully conveys this spiritual but incredibly human conversation with God.

I truly love how many Hindi songs outline a similar conversation with God. I wanted to include more in this post, but I wanted to vary the selection I describe here a bit. If you listen to the playlist, do check out ‘Arziyan’ by Javed Ali for some very heartrending but beautiful music!

3. everythingoes by RM

RM’s ‘mono.’ playlist always has so much emotional meaning to me for being with me during every one of my tough times. I think Namjoon’s music has a beautiful quality of mirroring your pain and struggles in the most comforting way possible. With this song, he takes even the cliched statement of “this too shall pass” or “everything will pass” and turns it into a message of perseverance and hope.

The gentle tones of Namjoon’s singing that repeat the words, “It all passes, someday, for sure, certainly…It passes” really ensure this simple message is ingrained in our minds. His soft singing contrasts the increasing desperation of his voice during the rap section. While he uses beautiful imagery of change – “Just as night leaves and morning comes/The spring leaves and summer comes, but/Just like the flower wilts and the fruit grows ripe” – he states, contrastingly, that “everything needs to go through pain.” Thus, he accepts that even beautiful experiences pass and change. Similarly, while endings and change feel painful and sad, they pass to reveal something even more beautiful, that will then go through the same cycle of ending and change.

Namjoon also suggests that while it can be hard to believe in “unclear words saying to have strength” and “the lies that it’s all just the way things are,” we can simply pray that we become “better adults,” or people who can control our responses and accept that everything changes and passes. I love how he subverts cliched words of comfort and instead tells us to hold on with hope for a better future. The song is truly such a balm for troubling times and I always revisit it when I feel low.

4. The Story by Conan Gray

A lot of Conan’s music feels like it was written just for me. The whole ‘Kid Krow’ album especially has a lot of songs that really felt like a hug through my hard times. I’m really happy to say that I watched Conan perform this song live, and it was absolutely beautiful to sing it with him and feel with him the hopeful tones of his music. Before performing it, he explained that the song was very personal to him – he said that although he went through a lot as a child and was tired of being told he should ‘be strong’, the fact that he was able to perform for us like this showed just how much better things could get, and even if it feels like it, it’s really not the end of the story.

The lyrics of the song focus on love and friendship, and tell each story briefly but impactfully such that they really strike the heart – the first verse, for example:

“Let me tell you a story about a boy and a girl It’s kinda short, kinda boring, but the end is a whirl They were just sixteen and the people were mean So they didn’t love themselves, and now they’re gone Headstones on a lawn…”

I really love the way Conan assures us that even though the world is harsh and life can be hard, it’s still “not the end of the story” – “Oh and I’m afraid that’s just the way the world works/But I think that it could work for you and me/Just wait and see/It’s not the end of the story.” The song is very simply composed – Conan’s voice is left bare an accompanied by just a piano and guitar, which makes it feel more personal as though he’s telling these stories only to you. This song feels like a conversation with your best friend late at night as you pour your hearts out to each other – and that’s one of the many reasons it gives me so much hope and reassurance.

5. New Youth (새소년) by SE SO NEON

I ended up discovering Se So Neon when I more recently got into the Korean indie scene – I truly enjoy Hwang Soyoon’s silvery voice that manages to convey a versatile range of emotions. Through its sound alone, this song feels like a lullaby. The song is titled Se So Neon (새소년) in Korean too – thus, the band’s name and this song both signify ‘new youth.’

The song touched me because of its focus on the ‘new youth’ of today – it spoke to me as someone in their ‘youth’ who was rather struggling with being in that phase of life. I think many young people experience disillusionment with their dreams – they want to achieve so much, but they realise how difficult it is to build one’s own life in today’s world and society. I love how Soyoon captures this when she sings, “The time you had hoped for passes by/We walked on without a word/I guess we had already been forsaken.” Having gone through a global pandemic and then trying to regain your footing in the world after it ends, it feels like all the moments we’ve hoped for never seem to go the way we expect, and all we can do is walk ahead wondering if this was how it was always meant to be.

I also really liked the bridge of the song:

“Ah, new youth, we’ve already been born Ah, let’s breathe in deeply Ah, us forsaken new youth, Ah, let’s breathe in deeply”

It feels so gentle and comforting – it accepts the feeling of being left out, forsaken and struggling to make a life for yourself. It then asks you to just take a breath for a minute and feel that you are alive. And yet, somehow, we still find it in us to run towards the future – “the future sees a light, far over there/It keeps illuminating me, it calls to me, I run to it” “I aimed for and ran away to the time that was visible to me.” Thus, she asks us to keep going as best we can, to move forward and make the choices that we know best despite struggling and feeling forsaken. The regular rhythms, soothing melodies and Soyoon’s voice like a lullaby all make this such a wonderful song to listen to during times like these.

6. The Same (우리에게 필요한건) by The Poles

And finally, the song that inspired me to make this entire post! I heard this song a long time ago, but on a particularly hard day, the lyrics of the chorus played on my mind continuously – “어지러운 날들이 다시 괜찮아질 거야��� (those dizzy days will become okay once again). I listened to the song and checked what the lyrics meant, and somehow, it was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment, just like the song’s Korean title, 우리에게 필요한건 (What we/I need). The chorus is particularly so special: “As we look at the same place/We’ll once again walk the same path/Those dizzy days/Will be okay again.” What a beautiful way to say: remember where it is you want to go and what you are moving towards, and before you know it, the dizziness of uncertainty will settle down again.

It also reminds me not to try to control the future. The second verse:

“Let’s be swept away If we float to that place far away Not needing anything at all […] Let’s float without getting hurt…”

It urges you to do what you can and just allow the present to happen around you – float with it and see where it takes you into the future. Go without expectation, “not needing anything at all.” It’s beautiful how a song called “what we need” shows that what we truly need is to not need anything at all – to not expect anything of the world and float with it, seeing where life takes you.

Daniel’s music, especially with The Poles, has a particularly beautiful way of providing comfort. Here, the loud rhythm of the drums and guitar, and the powerful vocals really contrast the soothing vibe of the lyrics. I like to think that it’s a symbol of the strength it takes to move ahead in life with no expectations even while you’re struggling. The way this song came back to me when I felt low makes it so special to me – I really dream of seeing The Poles performing it live, though I think it would make me tear up a lot!

These are a few songs that helped me through hard and stressful times – I really enjoyed compiling this playlist and listening to it be exactly what I needed when I was struggling. I hope it can be some comfort to you too – thank god we always have music no matter how hard life gets!

Here’s the whole playlist if you would like to listen to it, I will keep updating it:

Spotify

YouTube Music

(P.S.: I will try and write more posts in the coming months – I have quite a few ideas, and now that my brain is working again I think I’ll be able to execute them too!! Please look forward to them!)

References for translated lyrics (if it’s not linked, I translated it myself!):

What If

everythingoes

New Youth

The Same

[ink-flavored]

soft asks! 🥀🌾 im so torn between saying pride and justice (and) or feriha just cause i love hearing about her too hehe

thank you!! i will help your dilemma and do one of each! :3

🥀 How would your OC decorate a notebook or journal? What kind of things are written in there? Could you give an example of a nice entry?

I'll do Feriha for this one. I think she'd decorate it with physical things, like dried flowers or scraps of paper as keepsakes, bird feathers, etc. etc. She'd use it like a daily journal, cataloguing her day and the things that happened very matter-of-factly.

🌾 Describe your OC through the eyes of someone absolutely head-over-heels in love with them

This one is for the P&J fellas. Because they are in love <3 And I kinda wanna write this in their voices so here we go--

Pride, about Justice:

Oh, where do I fucking START? For a dude who flipped Heaven the bird, you'd think he'd have less of a stick up his ass. Can't go two minutes without getting a lecture about "manners" or "common sense" or "basic public decency." Yawn. Over it.

Like, I'm just saying. He's NOT in Heaven anymore, right? But he's still so fuckin' nervous about being a perfect little angel, can't go two steps without dropping everything to fix some random person's issues. Helping people is fine, whatever, but it's like he never gives himself a break. I want to shake him sometimes, you know? Lay off the personal responsibility for five minutes, you don't have Gabriel checking your quarterly reports this week, or whatever the fuck.

I don't know. Maybe him being nice to literally everyone isn't so bad. He's nice to me, even though he probably shouldn't be. It saved my life, so I guess I should thank him for it. He's also a huge nerd, which is hilarious. I can't believe he got fake glasses for fun, what a dork.

Justice... makes me feel like I suck. But in a good way? I want to... suck less, so I'm worth it for him. That's probably dumb. But I don't know what else to say. He makes me feel like it's possible for me to not suck one day.

Justice, about Pride:

Pride is... a handful. He's very loud, he can be inconsiderate, he can't ever admit he was wrong, and no matter how many times I tell him not to smoke in the house, he seemingly can't help himself from wearing his horns to bed and making everything in his room stink. Sometimes I wonder if he even listens to me.

He's been through so much pain, though. I try to remember that. No matter how annoyingly stubborn or impossible to talk to he can be, it's all because he thought for centuries he would always be alone. I can feel it all the time, this... constant guilt and rage in him. I can't hate him, I can't even try. It takes a lot of patience to understand him, but I don't regret a single second of it.

Because he's also fiercely protective of people he loves. He's passionate, he's encouraging, he does whatever he likes without thinking about what other people might tell him. All his choices are his own, for better or worse, and I admire him for that. He's slow to trust, but once he feels like he won't be hurt by you, Pride is a beautiful person. Someone worth abandoning Heaven for.

[send me a soft OC ask]

[seumyo]

(1) HAIII EUMY !! ouh goodness… prepare for all tha rambles for m’ requests… a little birdie ( you teehee ) told me u liked readin’ em so i have come to deliver YIPEEE !! <3 omigoodness i feel bad for doing two… i know u said mooties can but !! </3 PWEASE DONT OVERWORK YOURSELF !! take all of da time in tha world !! and fank yous for letting me participate m’ angel !! <3 🍓

oki so !! dis one sha’ll beee for kirene !! lene x kirishima !! <3

personality : i took tha 16personalities test just for this, it says im infj-t !! im quite shy but i open up around people im closest to. im extremely loyal, honest, and i prioritize being kind and considerate to everyone !!

hobbies/interests : figure & manga collecting, baking, art, writing, and making cute things on my phone ?? is that a hobby ?? like fun little letters and digital stuffs like photos and themed things if dat makes sense HELP !! also makeup, skincare, fashion, all of dat jazz !! :>

likes : cats & giraffes, anime, fruits basket, romance, food & pastries, reading, kind people, gold jewelry, pastels and pinks and reds, winter and fall, tulips and daisies, matcha, music, shopping, my best friend, tumblr !!

dislikes : rude/unkind people, … taylor swift… :<, needles, being tired, i dont have many dislikes i fear…

nationality : greek !! OPAAA ώπα ! 🇬🇷

how me n kiri met : the most basic answer in the entire exsistence of the world /j (we met at ua !! ) i met him when i wasn’t sure where to go & he ended up bringin’ me to class :>

dynamics : golden retriever guy x cat girl, outgoing x shy, “lets do this” girl x “ill follow you wherever you may need me” guy, strong caring bf x sweet girl… am i doing this right HEJEJDK

how we got together : over time we became closer friends and he was always very understanding that im a bit shy but he got me to open up more !! we had lil crushes on eachother that were so obvious. one day i had gotten a knock at my door and there he was with some pretty lil flowers for me, he told me it “wasnt manly for him to not confess” and he asked me to be his girlfriend !! :< of course i said yes and i have those pretty flowers pressed in a frame to remember <3

how we’d argue : to be honest, with him and bokuto i dont see much arguing ?? i feel like it’d be incredibly hard to argue with either of them in a true angry sense. if anything, with him it’d be a disagreement of me being worried (bur not refusing) him to go on a really dangerous mission and him just not understanding where im coming from… thats like a once in a lifetime thing though methinks and he apologized immediately :<

colors & song : oki so !! i made a lil moodboard of kirene a while ago and i know theres not much red on there but id say the main colors are : red, pink, and peach ( and white hehe ) and the song… ouh i fear i may have too many… take my breath away - berlin mayhaps ?? im not too sure for kiri IM SORRY !! here is da moodboard if it helps any <3

aesthetic : um… if the moodboard helps any… that !! sakura trees… downtown couple… yeagh T^T

oki !! dats mostly it !! will send da other one separately teehee !! MWUAHHHH !!

ᯓ★ KIRISHIMA + LENE!

★ The first time Kirishima Eijirou met you, he didn’t think much of it, but he was glad to have helped you find your class!

★ Now, we’re going to take a mini timeskip to before the actual relationship. He was having the dilemma of his entire life. He wasn’t sure if he should do it in person or if it’s better to just leave it by your door. Kirishima was convinced that he’ll do it personally because he believes it’s important that you see his sincerity with his intentions of courting you, so he shows up! Dressed all neatly for the occasion, but you’ll see his smile twitching out of nervousness as he hands you the flowers he bought (he had to do a community survey amongst your friends to really make sure that those were your favorites).

★ He admires your thoughtfulness and loves watching you do things you’re passionate about, often saying, “You’re even cuter when you’re focused!” Biggest hype man known to the planet and back. In his eyes, you could do no wrong. And he loves learning about your hobbies. Oh, you like to bake? Well, he isn’t a baker, but you’ll find him helping to prep the things you’ll need!

★ Genuinely smitten. If you made something for him, Kirishima always shows them off to the others, claiming, “This is what love looks like!” His friends are taking deep breaths because they know they’ll never hear anything else from him throughout the day.

★ He has the combo of all five love languages. Kirishima doesn’t need to be told what to do because he’s observant as is, often offering to carry heavy things for you or walk you to your dorm after late-night dates. He insists, “It’s only manly to look after my girlfriend!”

★ Kirishima enjoys planning little surprises for you, like taking you out to see winter lights or sneaking her favorite treats into your bag. He lives for the way your eyes light up when you realize what he did. Gives himself a mental pat on the back for a job well done.

★ He sometimes struggles to understand why you worry so much about his safety during missions. While he always reassures you that he’ll be fine, your concern makes him realize how much you care, and he makes an effort to check in with you afterward to ease your worries. If this man was even a bit reckless before, now that he has you, he takes a certain amount of precaution because he doesn’t want you to worry about him—and would want to come home to you in one piece.

★ Listens and never judges. He loves listening to you talk about your figure and manga collection. He doesn’t fully understand the appeal, but (hey, he also collects Crimson Riot’s merch, so that’s sort of the same thing) promises to help you find rare items. He once dragged Bakugou to a convention just to pick up an exclusive figure for you. Bakugou was not amused but respected the lengths Kirishima would go to.

★ You often go on shopping dates where you help Kirishima pick out clothes. He’s terrible at fashion but happily models whatever you pick, saying, “If you like it, then I’ll wear it!”

★ When you two are older and have a place of your own, he wants it decorated however you see fit because he trusts your taste and likes it. Kirishima also insists on adopting at least two cats, claiming, “Every hero needs a sidekick—or two!” A cat army is about to rise out of that statement.

★ Kirishima makes an effort to learn Greek whenever he’s not busy, so he could impress you and your family. Book the flight; this man is readying himself for what’s to come.

[psalmicwitch]

Hello Lovely! I saw your post advertising your desire of gaining more experience with readings, and would like to take the invitation if this is a work you still desire and are open to do!

I’m Isabela J. 27. Female.

About 2-ish, 3-ish years ago I had the opportunity of living through a transformative relationship that awakened in me a more soft, caring, creative and nurturing side. It allowed me to feel safe to unravel and start blossoming, if that makes sense? It was a time that plunged me deep inside myself, and gave me the opportunity to come closer with God. I’m really grateful for this individual’s passing in my life. My questions are (and I am not good at being objective, so fel free to mess around with the questions or simplify them to fit your style of drawing best) :

I understand that this experience was to bring my attention to myself and how I use my time here on his earth. What perspective am I missing that makes it so hard to actually be grounded in the here and now?

2. What is this period I find myself in? I’m torn between feeling the need to do something, be productive, collect results, and resting & letting life come to me, through me in the time it should. I don’t know if i’m being asked to cultivate patience or initiate change through action.

3. ls there any loose ends or unfinished business between us? I know the effects his presence had in my life, but after my passing in his, is he ok? Even though my intentions were sincere, I fear I could have stirred confusion and unrest in him. I pray he see’s through every and all illusions too and we can both move on, but there is some sort of attachment I can’t truly shake off even though we aren’t in each other’s life anymore. I want to open my hands and let God take care of this, but I for some reason can’t, and want to fix this. (This sounded dramatic lol take the question how you may, and at the end of the day everything is fine, I just can’t stop thinking about this man at random and it’s ANNOYING.)

Thank you for your time 🫶🏾

Hi hun, thanks for reaching out! Here’s what I pulled for you!

1. What perspective am I missing that makes it so hard to be grounded in the here and now? (Two of cups, reversed)

While the two of cups upright suggests the flow of love between two people. Reversed, it’s partly self love. The two of cups asks us to love ourselves, as without that, we become overly dependent on people in our lives, especially partners. I think more importantly, the two of cups signals a break-up, and a falling out of communication. To turn everything around, we’re to open up and let everything out. I feel as though you’re not hoping to return to this relationship, so I imagine the opening up has to be with yourself. Was there something about this relationship that you still feel hung up on? Something deeper than surface? I’d encourage you to dig deeper within yourself.

2. What is this period I find myself in? (Ace of swords, reversed)

The ace of swords usually indicates an idea or breakthrough. When reversed, that idea or breakthrough becomes an internal dilemma, something we’re not ready to open up about. Maybe you don’t have it all planned out yet, maybe it’s not clear to you. In another way, the ace of swords reversed can manifest as a broken idea of sorts. You had the best laid plans or intentions, and they’ve all fallen apart. Either way, you’re in a planning stage. May that be life, relationships, career, etc, you’re not ready to move forward, but the call of the ace of swords reversed is to find ways to further flesh out this idea, often involving meditation or introspection, and making an actionable plan. Your dilemma of being unsure of letting life take its course or make change are both correct answers. You need to do both.

3. Is there any unfinished business or loose ends between us? (10 of wands, reversed)

When the ten of wands shows up reversed in a reading, we often find ourselves carrying too much, or trying to go at too much alone. We’re exhausting ourselves, and not reaching out for help. Someone in your previous relationship is holding on too too much, and they need to let go or ask for help. Perhaps that’s you, holding on to him and trying to make sure he’s ok. Maybe it’s him, struggling with either the course of the relationship or the way it ended. In general, when we ask yes or no questions like this, the ten of wands reversed is a “yes” card. There are likely loose ends here. With the vague nature of this card, perhaps it’s worth checking in, and perhaps it’s worth letting everything run its course.

(I forgot to take a picture of my physical cards, so unfortunately I don’t have that for you.)

If you need more clarification, feel free to reach back out!

If you found this reading helpful please consider making a donation to the ALS Foundation!

[mukelaniot]

Maternal and Child health in rural South frica.

“Hold on, what do you mean you have no idea what that even means?”  

“It’s 2024 and women and children are still overlooked. Why am I even surprised?  I mean, nothing new there!”

This was my response when I tried to engage one of my friends in a conversation about Maternal and child health. I must admit, I was quite shocked and disappointed, considering this friend of mine is a new father. I thought we would be a lot further than this at this point in life. This goes to say, “We are not yet Uhuru”.

I’ll say, that although I am not much of a blogger, this topic is one I feel quite passionate about. South Africa’s health is an ongoing crisis with detrimental implications for individuals, families, and communities. Although efforts have been made to address maternal and child health, with it being part of arguably one of the most important of the MDGs (Koblinsky, M., Anwar, I., Mridha, M. K., Chowdhury, M. E., & Botlero, R. (2008)), it is still a huge health concern. I am not going to bore you with the stats, as I am sure countless others have.

Having grown up in a rural area and now being exposed to and working with less privileged communities as an occupational therapy student, I have seen a lot done to address to enhance child health. From the free health care, including check-ups at the clinic before and after birth, to the promotion and provision of free vaccinations (Wagstaff et al., 2004), which coincidentally, I saw being done 2 days ago (measle vaccination) in a clinic where I was doing health promotion on maternal health, promoting physical and mental health and overall well-being mothers.

However, the focus on maternal health usually ends after giving birth. Important factors such as postnatal depression (Almalik, 2017), postnatal anxiety, and burnout are often overlooked. What people fail to understand is just how linked maternal health and child health are, as a tired, burned-out mother cannot fully take care of a child. See the dilemma there?

One of the things I have observed is that in communities, maternal health is often ignored, focusing only on the child's health and well-being. As an occupational therapy student, I tasked myself with doing the best I could to address this imbalance. I am currently providing education and raising awareness about maternal health during the women's support groups that will also provide education to even those who are not yet mothers. I also plan to address matters during the fatherhood groups I plan on establishing in the community, to ensure the women get the support they need at home.

The crisis of overlooked maternal and child health needs to be tackled by the whole community to get better outcomes. As an occupational therapy student, I know I cannot do it alone, but I am committed to doing my part. After all, children are our future, and women are the pillars of our society. Let us take care of them to ensure a healthier society and future.

Almalik, M. M. (2017). Understanding maternal postpartum needs: A descriptive survey of current maternal health services. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(23-24), 4654–4663. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.13812

Koblinsky, M., Anwar, I., Mridha, M. K., Chowdhury, M. E., & Botlero, R. (2008). Reducing Maternal Mortality and Improving Maternal Health: Bangladesh and MDG 5. Journal of Health, Population, and Nutrition, 26(3), 280–294. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2740701/

Van den Broek, N. R., & Falconer, A. D. (2011). Maternal mortality and millennium development goal 5. British medical bulletin, 99(1), 25-38.  chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nynke-Broek/publication/51619843_Maternal_mortality_and_Millennium_Development_Goal_5/links/564c9d5508ae635cef2a75b5/Maternal-mortality-and-Millennium-Development-Goal-5.pdf

Wagstaff, A., Bustreo, F., Bryce, J., & Claeson, M. (2004). Child Health: Reaching the Poor. American Journal of Public Health, 94(5), 726–736. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.94.5.726

[wizard-spider-man]

The Moral Dilemma of Accepting Gifts of Gratitude from Devils (Blizzard Aftermath)

From the streets below, the familiar 7 foot figure of the Provost approaches the Spider-Wizard. Nox calls from below.

"Spider-Wizard. Do you mind coming to ground level. I have a few things I wish to discuss.*

The Wizard Spider-Man heard the call, not from below but in his ears. The will of the Provost seems to extend all across the city, into the airwaves themselves apparently.

He swung down, landing in front of the Tall Devil.

Spider-Man hadn't been home for long, and this meeting was unexpected. The sun had just begun to rise, casting a soft glow on the scene. The land was recently scarred from weeks of bitter snowfall.

It was only now did the heat of summer seem to wash in, a little.

"What can I do for you, Honorable Provost?" he asked, his senses calm, notating the absence of any guards. "I hope you didn't mind me saving the city."

Nox, surprisingly awarded the Spider-Wizard a short, respectful bow.

"Indeed, it is the aforementioned saving of the city for which I am speaking to you now," he began.

"You have done a great service for Asfelaeia. If not for your assault on Verglas, and the organization of the counter-curse, Asfelaeia may well have suffered much greater than it has now."

Spider-Man bowed back, paying his respects.

"Thank you, Provost. That means, well, everything, coming from judge and jury." He paused, then added, "J-jokes aside. For real. It's the least I can do? I'm a hero. It's been my calling for... a long time."

"I'm just glad I can make a difference in your city, your honor."

"As am I."

Nox pauses, then continues.

"While it is not explicit in the contract of citizenship, it has become a standard practice that those who serve Asfelaeia greatly, are served in return by Asfelaeia," he explained.

"My warlock knights. Many of them oath breakers. But in serving their debt may be alleviated, or even removed entirely."

"You are beyond that point. Your debt to Asfelaeia has been paid. Now, Asfelaeia owes you."

"Tell me spider-wizard. Is there something you desire from this city? From your Provost?"

The Wizard thought about the city at large for a good while, everything that had transpired in these recent weeks.

"Well. If I had a few requests... the people of Undercity. The AJC is not enough."

"There needs to be more funding and housing directed towards the region as a whole. People there should also be given a guideline to citizenship. Non citizens there should have a shot at serving the city. WISH already has sponsorship programs that could be adopted to legal doctrine."

"And as a personal favor, Nirva, should have his charges dropped and he should be given citizenship, no questions asked. He doesn't want it for some reason, but he deserves it."

Nox blinked. He knew this would be the response, yet it still upset him.

He breathed in shortly.

"A Devil must always pay his debts. And I owe a debt to you. You must understand, my power is great, but not unending," he said. "I will direct my men to create a more swift and equitable pathway to citizenship for those in the Undercity. I must inform you, that was always the plan. In time, I will make the Undercity a sanctioned part of Asfelaeia."

"And. I will drop the charges against Nirva. He will still need to take the oaths to become a citizen, but I will not stop him," he added. "You ask much of me, Spider-Wizard. This is what I can offer, to fulfill your request."

"Thank you. Believe me, I can't believe I'm making any requests," Wizard Spider-Man replied. "In due time, he should fulfill his oaths. Did you need anything more of me, your honor?"

"Just one more thing," Nox said. "Through the contract of citizenship, I can empower my people. You have earned this right. If ever your strength is not enough, call upon the strength of your oaths. It will come to you."

"Wait, empower? How so?" the Spidey asked, cocking his head curiously.

"The same way I empower my warlock-knights. The power of the hells, my power, to flow through you," Nox explained, demonstrating with a small aura of hellfire swirling around his hand.

*"Hellfire."*

The Wizard Spider-Man reaches out, unafraid of the familiar blue flame.

The flame caught his hand, and enveloped him. He began to undergo a transformation.

Armor plates summoned on his body, on his mask, and a hood covered his head as horns sprouted on his head.

*Onlookers hurried along, startled.*

He felt a surge of unholy power take him. His soul started to take on the cold of hellfire.

**Wizard becomes Warlock, as the Spider unveils a new form of power.**

"Oh. It. Kinda hurts..." he muttered. He was amplified in ways he didn't realize yet.

Time would tell what new abilities would become of him.

And what that meant for his soul in particular.

A closely guarded essence, this alteration was the first time *anything* had changed him, since... another time entirely.

This newfound power was a shift in alignment, a curiosity in and of itself; Spider-Man was a master sorcerer of many arts, but divinity, light magic, and morally good elements were what his spirit excelled in, and amplified.

There were many questions as to how Hellfire would interact with Holy Light.

*The Provost speaks, and the Wizard Spider-Man listens.*

"I have great trust in you, Spider-Wizard," Nox said.

"With great power comes great... Justice. Use it well, use it wisely."

With those final words, the Provost bowed his head once again, and turned to leave.

*A portal greeted him, and he steps through it.*

The Wizard fades back out of his Warlock state, the burning in his soul ceasing. He exhales, shakily.

"What's with these demons and their magic portals? I have magic portals. You don't see me using them to go everywhere..."

The Wizard Spider-Man leaps off the ground, gracefully casting a webline to propel himself through the air and out towards the depths of Undercity.

#The city's recent efforts at urban consolidation were clear in the new elevator structures being integrated into the holes in the surface. These would provide fast and efficient access for the web-slinger to traverse the interconnected parts Asfelaeia.

#It would seem since he was gone, the city was becoming closer to being more unified; a greater good for everyone.

[romilly-jay]

COSY CATASTROPHE: An arbitrary selection of candidates (recent reading)

*** mild spoilers ***

This is the full ranking from my jokingly named index. Full size versions of the slides will be posted over the next few weeks.

Everything I’ve included I consider acceptably readable – including The Road, which *I* haven’t read and have no intention of reading. It's clearly a masterpiece BTW, and the problem, yes, it's me.

[Perhaps one day, when I’m ready for a ‘harrowing, anti-cathartic experience’, I’ll be able to go there. That day is – not yet.]

Doing the exercise – and deliberately keeping it personal – reinforced for me that moral judgements are not universal. For example, I very much enjoyed The Luminous Dead – I found the dilemmas compelling and I could engage with the characters despite seeing that one of them is taking extreme risks and the other has committed herself to some morally reprehensible actions. There’s a vocal online group who consider the power dynamic too suspect and the controller character’s actions too repugnant, to the point it ruined the story for them. Not so for me, but I understand where they are coming from. They probably wouldn’t have this book on their list.

Some might say that the entire exercise was ‘arbitrary’. I prefer to call it 'subjective'', by which I mean that my individual taste is a leading factor but I feel that in places it is still possible to make an externally verifiable case from the texts for certain characteristics.

The disposition and mental health of the respective viewpoint characters, for instance, in my view makes Harrow the Ninth an 'observably' darker novel than Gideon the Ninth.

Genre texts mapped on the cosiness/catastrophe "index":

§El-Mohtar, A. and Gladstone, M. (2019) This is how you lose the time war. London: Jo Fletcher Books.

§Jemisin, N.K. (2016) The fifth season: the broken earth book one. London: Orbit Books.

§McCarthy, C. (2007) The road. London: Vintage.

§Muir, T. (2020) Gideon the Ninth. New York: Tor.com.

§Muir, T. (2021) Harrow the Ninth. New York: Tor.com.

§Sanderson, B. (2023) Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. London: Gollancz.

§Scalzi, J. (2022) The Kaiju Preservation Society. New York: Tor Books.

§Starling, C. (2019) The luminous dead. New York: Harper Collins.

§Turton, S. (2024) The last murder at the end of the world. London: Bloomsbury.

§Weir, A. (2014) The Martian. New York: Crown Publishing.

§Weir, A. (2022) Project Hail Mary. New York: Penguin.

§Wells, M. (2017-8) The murderbot diaries (first four novellas: all systems red; artificial condition; rogue protocol; and exit strategy). New York: Tordotcom.

[the-art-in-arthesia-is-loud]

this rlly does need its own post actually wtf 💀

this is actually another fact post ig. but it's actually dedicated to only ONE SINGLE FACT. which i will elaborate on right........now

so basically: trojan has nicknames for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THE RGVERSE. WELL. THE ONES HE ACTUALLY KNOWS ABOUT ACTUALLY. the nicknames themselves are pretty random, and if the character being nicknamed's name is derived from the name of the song they're based off of, then trojan's nickname for them will literally be that

a very sorted out and super neat (trust) list of all of trojan's nicknames. some characters are not mentioned because he either has never interacted with them at all as of now or has to forcefully not give them a nickname 😔:

temporal - for tempo (it's pretty obvious right off the bat what song he's based off of at this rate thanks to trojan's nickname for him LMAO)

shifting - for shifta (she rlly is shifting...)

^ adding onto the previous two bullets, trojan would sometimes refer to the both of them as "temporal shifting" if he's talking about them as a duo. do you understand now.

tera - for terabyte (he would've easily gave this nickname to teravolt too. to make things confusing between the two of them bc he likes to be a lil shit)

lite - for satellite (terabyte has this as a nickname for satellite too lol)

ale-ale - for aleph-0 (needless to say aleph does NOT like this nickname. but even he cannot stop stupid lil trojan)

^ adding onto the previous bullet, i made "ale-ale" trojan's nickname for aleph bc i randomly thought of some fruit juice brand that i used to drink from when i was little. i can still vividly remember buying one of them from a local store.......rlly need to drink one again!2!1!11!1!

pam - for pamolia (hahahaha pam pam)

pupapa - for pupa (if you get this i'm hoping you let out a fucking laugh *points a gun at you /j*)

arsi - for ars (iykyk :3)

another her/you (changes depending on if he's talking to her directly or talking about her with someone else) - for ana (waaaatashi no. betsuno.)

lucid (traveler) - for lucas (uogh)

galactic warzone - for galactic (LMAO)

glaci - for glaciaxion (he didn't got creative with this one 💔)

destruction - for destonio (arghena calls him this too)

distorted fate - for fate (HAAHAHAHA)

spinny spin spin - for spinel (im gonna be rlly honest with you guys. im going to fucking lose my shit /j)

up - for upshift (hahahhaa up. up up up)

abstruse dilemma - for abstruse (dedede dreeeeeeeeeet dededede de de de-)

wait for dawn/daw - for dawn (the "wait for dawn" one is mostly used for jokes, tho)

prideful raven - for raven (:>)

rise of the world - for risa (a a a a a a a a a a a a aaa.)

unknown rickroll - for unknown levels (I AM SO ENGROSSED IN THIS JOKE IM SORRY)

arghe - for arghena (primeval, fate, and unknown levels call her this too)

prim prim - for primeval texture (she does NOT LIKE THIS NICKNAME FOR SOME REASON-)

tech/colour - for technicolour (mostly calls techni "colour" tho)

gos - for logos (logos is confused)

ego - for ego eimi (eimi's offended)

THAT'S IT THAT'S ALL. i didn't put this under a readmore bc im LAAAAZYTTYTT

[jmpeytiaotiao]

Thank you for your appreciation. Lou is indeed love and represents a kind of acceptance of the external world (this is based on the animated series Kiri and Lou, where Lou loves the scent of flowers, enjoys sleeping, and likes to share love with friends). Lou's perspective on the world is somewhat opposite to Jem’s (because this version of Jem is based on Eagle vs Shark, where there is a certain anger or chaos in Jem's heart, and he struggles to control his violent tendencies). Your feelings are truly amazing; I almost cried... My thoughts resonate closely with yours. This version of Jem is not exactly the same as Jarrod, but they share similar views on morality. They strive to achieve their determined goals but are also troubled by the moral dilemmas caused by the means they can only think of at the moment. It’s somewhat like the inner turmoil Jarrod experiences when he sees his "enemy" in a wheelchair. In the end, they both make similar choices to move forward, even though their decisions might hurt someone. However, for the sake of inner harmony, Jem would make such a choice...

The concept of Bret’s birth is based on McKenzie’s idea for the Video Kid’s existence, but here the elements are selected from things Bret likes in the FOTC series (and things that will appear in the 12 parallel universes of the musical calendar). In this universe, Bret's beard and sideburns are designed to look like a keyboard, and he wears headphones, making Bret resemble a giant musical instrument (McKenzie still enjoys making music to this day). (One more point, though it’s not very important: in this scene, the white door has “BJ” written on it. Although some special treatments are applied to the font and angles, it is indeed B&J... I can't say more, or I’ll spoil it...) In short, Lou's presence in this universe symbolizes the overlap of B&J's concepts. In the FOTC series, we see B&J, as kiwis, trying to buy fruit (banana and apple) but facing rejection (some form of discrimination). In that episode, Bret insists on getting that apple... As a war machine, the history that Bret carries is something most people today do not understand and have never heard of. He may seem dangerous, but he could be the key to making the world a better place. It’s somewhat like in Kiri and Lou, where we get to understand some Māori words—not for the purpose of warring with each other, but to document and convey the diversity of this world. In one episode, we can hear those adorable prehistoric creatures describing the sounds of different plants, singing the sounds of various colors. The concept this universe aims to convey is similar...

May -《Scald》

(Archaeological Adventurer) Jemaine (Ancient War Machines）Bret (Marvelous Creatures) Lou

In a world ravaged by an unknown extraterrestrial force, ancient historical ruins lie buried deep beneath the earth. The remnants of a mysterious power continue to influence the realm, where the sun no longer graces the sky. In this darkened world, temperatures soar year-round, while once-abundant edible crops become increasingly scarce. Humanity relies on excavating these historical remnants and repurposing them to reconstruct their society.

Jemaine is an archaeological adventurer who ventures into rainforests and plains in search of relics, studying mutated plants (and occasionally battling them). He explores underground temples, seeking traces of the extraterrestrial force in hopes of unraveling its identity. One day, in pursuit of a mechanical apple that holds the secrets of an alien civilization, he journeys into an unexplored mechanical jungle. Along the way, he encounters Lou, an ancient and marvelous creature in search of companions...

As an adventurer, Jemaine is accustomed to solitude, largely because he struggles with communication (his mind often feels chaotic). Fortunately, Lou is a calm and friendly little being, gifted in song. Traveling with Lou brings Jemaine a sense of comfort. During a long trek one night, Lou sings while introducing him to the concept of the "calm inner voice," a presence within every living being. In an unfortunate turn, they unwittingly plunge into a swamp that resembles a grassy meadow... They continue to descend, their breath growing shallow...

Upon awakening, Jemaine finds himself in an unknown underground temple, and Lou is nowhere to be found... Lou, too, is in a similar predicament. Feeling a bit panicked, he calls upon the calm inner voice for assistance... As Lou's song reverberates and Jemaine ignites a torch, the temple begins to tremble. Plants burst forth from the brick walls, and terrifying trap mechanisms spring to life...

Three thousand years ago, a chance mechanical accident melded keyboards, steam engines, apple juice, clouds, mold, candles, and lightning into one. From this fusion, a musical being was born... The sound was silenced... No prayers were offered... War descended... Now, three thousand years later, accompanied by the echoes of song and faint warmth drifting within the temple, the war machine Bret slowly awakens from its slumber... ———————————————————————————— Additional Notes: The archaeological adventurer does not falsify or exaggerate his archaeological findings. Most of Jemaine's combat skills are developed through practice with martial arts dummies, and when he feels tired, he sleeps in his sleeping bag. The war machine is not Video Kid... (I'm still contemplating other details, and I'm uncertain about how they ... I don't know for now. If you have any ideas about this, feel free to share!)

———————————————————————————— July（the first story） June（the second story）

(the playlist) —————————————————————————————

X：@ Desiccant_bag Bluesky：@ jumpey404.bsky.social 微博：@ Juempy跳跳 （You can purchase prints that include all the images, currently limited to China only）