#my rant on archaeological artifacts

[sergioguymanproust]

The more we excavate these ruins ,the more we realize that we can’t seem to runaway from our past.And how is it that artifacts that belong in a museum in Mexico end up here The Art Institute of Chicago ? Egyptians artifacts end up in England ,and artifacts from the Sumerians end up in Germany ? Although I know the short answer ,money ! The black Market and the wealthy have access to millions of artifact I much rather see in the hands of the proper owners by this I mean the country of Origin .There is indeed such a thing called legalize stealing Well, looters have existed ever since excavations of sacred and ancient cultures and civilization have existed ,and as it is the case nowadays any artifact can be had by any prestigious institution at the right price ,donations included. This doesn’t make it right,right? Then there’s those famous auction houses with so much reputations where tycoons and philanthropists the likes of the Gate foundation and others make their bid . None could say that those artifacts are illegally purchased and sold some in secret indeed. Well, as a shaman ,I found it disgusting seeing pieces with so much spiritual significance and value ending up in Chicago. Well ,The Art Institute of Chicago.Yes ,folks it is always about money . Sad but true .Words by Sergio GuymanProust.

Mask from an incense burner depicting the Old Deity of Fire, Teotihuacan, 450-750 BC

from The Art Institute of Chicago

[heyclickadee]

This is a pointless rant, but I wish there were actual archaeology edutainment shows the same way that paleontology has with things like Prehistoric Planet and Walking With Dinosaurs or zoology has with Planet Earth and so many nature documentaries. I mean, no, things like that aren’t completely accurate, they’re compressed and simplified to be entertaining but they’re still trying to present a picture that’s representative of some kind of consensus. They’re still based on something.

Any tv program that brings up archaeology, though, it’s all pseudoarchaeology all the time. Ancient aliens and “alternative theories” and whatnot. The only show I’ve ever seen that even nodded in the direction of actual archaeology was Expedition Unknown, and it really did just nod (usually covering the same kind of sensationalist material as the ancient aliens type shows before going “yeah that’s bullshit but the real archaeology is way more interesting” at the conclusion of every episode, which was nice) for a while before going off in more and more of a pure treasure hunting direction as the show went on. And nothing else I’ve found even does so much as nod.

Just. Something that goes into actual methodology. Different theoretical frameworks. Typology. The ways even good methodologies can be used to support monstrous ideological frameworks or propaganda (for example: some of the most meticulously done fieldwork of the 1930’s was being done by, yes, nazi archaeologists. You can guess what they twisted their interpretations to support). Experimental archaeology. Hell, just that—a mythbusters style experimental archaeology series that tries to be fun without ever resorting to pseudoscience.

The reason I kind of want this is because the average person has very little understanding of how anyone in the premodern era lived. It was about ten years ago that my mom and I went to a traveling exhibit on Pompeii at a local museum, and she was flabbergasted at how, I don’t know, “modern” some of the artifacts were. And not the larger stuff: she didn’t think about anybody before about 1500 having plates or baskets or…clothes somehow. She knew intellectually that they must have, but it was different seeing it. It was hard for her to picture them just living life.

That’s something I used to run into a lot back when I studied and very, very briefly did archaeology. People in general have a tendency to see people from other times as fundamentally different, but they’re just us, displaced by time. And it would be nice to find an accessible way to show that.

The other reason I want something like that is because there’s sort of a misunderstanding of what archaeology is and why it’s important. You tell someone you’re an archaeologist and nine times out of ten they’re going to ask you what your favorite dinosaur is. And, I mean, I get it, dinosaurs are cool, I love dinosaurs, I was whatever the dinosaur equivalent of a horse girl was as a kid and never really grew out of it, I reblog dinosaur posts on here all the time and basically never talk about archaeology at all, but paleontology is a totally different field that does its own thing and archaeologists don’t study dinosaurs. And besides the whole public education aspect, I feel like people are more likely to support funding for researching something when they know that the science actually is. Or we’d hope.

I don’t know, I just would love for there to be a way to teach people about different bits of archaeology that was low effort and entertaining enough to compete with the flood of programs trying to convince everyone that ufos built Stonehenge.

[nimblermortal]

@drelmurn

Also, warning to neopagans: This one is not for you. I try to be polite and respectful about neopaganism and y'all do some cool stuff, but this is specifically complaining about things neopagans do. So if that's your jam, this is a good place to stop reading.

So the thing is, for assorted reasons we don't have any writing from actual Norse pagans. There's archaeological records and what you divine (ha) from those, but everyone serious is telling you that we cannot have any real idea of what these religious practices look like. There were groves; there were figurines of gods which had their own spaces; it seems likely that rich/powerful people were also priests; there were sacrifices of beasts and animals, and some really freaking creepy funeral rites.

(Part of the volcano rant is about how prior to the volcanic eruptions there is sun symbolism in the archaeological record, and afterward, none. Probably related to the whole "ash blocking out the sun in the Arctic Circle for three years straight, leading to the deaths of 40-60% of the population" thing. So we have that sort of record too.)

And I'm also going to preface with how when I took a bellydancing class the instructor was careful to tell us that she learned from someone who learned from someone from the regions this was practiced, so we were at best three removes from the culture. When we're talking about Norse paganism, we are a thousand years removed from the culture. Put a generation at 20 years, that is 50 generations. If we want to be super generous and assume that every other generation some grandparent taught their grandchild the secret rituals they remembered, we are still 25 removes from a living culture.

Nothing has actually survived.

But, you say, what about the Eddas? Those were written down in the medieval period. Those are contemporary.

Nope! Those were written by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). He's an Icelander. Iceland was officially Christianized in the year 1000, it's very easy to remember. Snorri was born 179 years after Christianity got enough of a grip to be enshrouded in law. I've been reading the Grágás (early law book, ~1260) and it has an initial section specifically on Christianity, with the punishments for things like men not knowing the words to baptize a child, much less daring to fast incorrectly. These people were not pagan. Snorri was writing down what he could guess from very old stories, and he begins by saying the gods were Asians from Troy.

There's just a period in medieval Europe when paganism was considered cool, and so everybody wanted their own pagans, and they tried to resurrect the concepts and everybody kind of suspiciously came up with the same general kind of paganism, which is an artifact both of like. How monotheists think about polytheism, and of wanting to keep the cool elements from what they heard from their friend in France or wherever. It's like how everybody knows that vampires can't be seen in mirrors.

So that brings us to my archnemesis Stephen Flowers, who would really prefer I called him Edred Thorsson.

Mr. Flowers originally decided to research runes "after I audibly 'heard' the sound 'RUNA' on a summer day in 1974." Two years later, in 1976, he completed his handbook of rune magic, which he assures you remains largely unchanged in this its third edition, because he uh spiritually inherited everything there was to know about runes in two years. He believes the Norse pagan "ancestors never died but rather were reborn, generation after generation, always keeping their secrets with them - until now, they are us" because who doesn't love some Hindi wheel of reincarnation in their Norse paganism.

So this sort of reincarnation/divine inspiration is one way he gives himself legitimacy. The next is by judicious use of Nazis, because Norse stuff has always had a problem with Nazism. Mr. Flowers, rather than disavowing Nazism in his introduction, goes with "Indeed, the Nazis made use of the runic forms in their most external aspects, akin to what we might call 'branding' today. The beginning rune vitki* of today may take some strange comfort from the fact that the runes did continu to show themselves to be such potent symbols in the twentieth century!"

He will grant that "the Germanic spirit itself was not at the heart of this 'bureaucratic blasphemy,' but rather it was a sort of pseudo-Christian messianic Manicheanism that owned the soul of the Nazi party." Far removed from the true religion Flowers intends to invent! He, after all, intends to create "a system as free as possible from any Judeo-Christian influence" with the classic random flinging of the Judeo- prefix in to seem more, I don't know, cosmopolitan, without showing any sign of having done the slightest research on Judaism and whether it might apply to his construct religion.

*Flowers proposes vitki as a practitioner of runic magic, which he refers to as galdrar. I have been sufficiently wrong often enough not to argue with him on this point; I will say only that there are many words for magic, and for all I know galdr (nominative singular) does refer to runic magic. I have not seen the word vitki elsewhere as yet.

I am probably getting overly het up about Stephen Flowers; I am prone to doing so. He concludes his introduction as follows:

Too long has the Westerner suffered "bearing the cross of alien fruits." They have had their chance and have failed time and again in their impotent effort to satisfy the depths of the IndoEuropean soil. Their aeon has come to an end; the time is ripe for a reemergence of the wisdom of the Eriloz (the vitki). The breakthrough of holy power must take place within the soul of each individual - and it is in this hope that this work has been wrought.

Which just. Having established the word vitki we're now going to add another cool foreign word for the same thing?? Westerners have suffered bearing the cross of Christianity?? It has failed to satisfy the depths of the IndoEuropean - look, it's just a list of white supremacist dogwhistles, okay. And I could be wrong about that, because I don't know white supremacist dogwhistles, but it sure reads like that to me!

I have a friend who is a neo-pagan and is studying Egyptian magic. Apparently the Egyptian practitioners wrote their things down. Which is cool and great, they had a writing system and they were using it, I know nothing about that and have nothing to say about it. She also says a lot of pagan practices are invented wholecloth, which is true and great. It's the "we are reviving a practice that has simply lain dormant for a thousand years until we arrived to accept this unbroken tradition" that drives me wild.

Anyway the key concepts include: appealing to some sense of an ancient unbroken tradition, which should appeal to you specifically because you are special in [spiritual and/or racial trait], and you can reject [practice that many people have been hurt by] because your special nature was reaching out to this the whole time. Sprinkle in appropriate symbols. Use some cool foreign-sounding words. Throw a minority under the bus if at all possible.

[yeoubbi]

school update #2 ! week 2 (so far)

mini rant:

why do professors who have professed for a long time do the thing where they use very specific field terminology without ever explaining what the words mean and expect everyone to know whats going on? i have 2 that do that rn & they are both classes without prereqs and specifically state you dont need any background in related fields to take the course lol

classes:

ethnomusicology - he tried to make us sing the other day, & i get its a music based class but its also an 8 am seminar for non music majors, my anxiety will not let me do that lol. otherwise seems really interesting so far and im excited for some of the projects listed in the syllabus.

dinos - not fully understanding the geology parts of this class so far. we were also assigned a group project where we have to go fossil hunting but none of my group members answer my texts so 🤷🏻‍♀️. enjoying reading the textbook a lot. also why does being in a larger room for class make it so much harder to focus?

bio anthro - not as bad as i expected. hearing my professors talk about their research as archaeologists is reallly cool. hate this classroom as well tho lmao

cultural anthro - we havent really done anything yet lol no updates tbh

archaeology - current fav. think im gonna be volunteering in the campus archaeology lab starting at the end of the month to help catalogue artifacts. excited for my textbook to get here tomorrow bc its the only physical one i got.

other things:

am in the process of setting up a semester abroad for summer 2024! already met with the office, chose a program, and have another meeting friday to apply for scholarships and get transfer credit approval :D fingers crossed i get accepted to the program i want

[mitsdriveswhere]

Please stop touching thousand year old artifacts

I.

Look.

I am an avid tourist. I like touristing. I think you should be an avid tourist. You should go see things that you think are cool. And to be clear, you should touch things you think are cool when you have permission.

If you go to Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado, they will let you touch the fossils. There is a whole wall of them, and they let you and encourage you to touch them. Obviously I did. That's a whole ass dinosaur fossil! Of course I'm going to touch it! And it was not at all what I was expecting it to feel like. It was cool, and educational.

You should be a tourist. I stand by that. What you should STOP being, is a Tourist™. Tourism? Cool. Tourism™? Not cool.

I've had this post in my drafts for more than a year, I wasn't really sure how to bring it up. I was prompted to write initially when I went to Homolovi State Park in AZ in 2022. It's a beautiful ruin, but it's easily accessible, and therefore has a greater chance of being defaced. Even while I was there, I saw with my own two eyes a family that allowed their crotch goblin child to walk off the paved route and into one of the ruins to pick up and bring them a pottery sherd (specifically, a shard of broken pottery). They looked at it, passing it around between them, and then placed it back on the ground with a pile of other sherds that other tourists had obviously gone off route to pick up.

And I just. I just lost my damn mind. I just lost my damn mind on that trail. And there were dozens of piles of sherds, all over the place. Homolovi is not the only ruin with this problem, pretty much any ruin you come across, you will see piles or "displays" of sherds all over the fucking place, where tourists felt it best to pick up these artifacts and then place them back wherever they saw fit.

And I started this post as a kind of... rant, for lack of a better word, because oh my god. Do not pick up thousand year old artifacts at ruins, especially at a ruin that still holds religious and cultural weight with a LIVING group of people.

This post sat in my drafts until now, because I couldn't think of a good reason to post it. It was not until I saw Milo, a youtube archeologist that I genuinely love, make a video about him doing this exact thing (and later apologized for it, which I appreciate). It finally dawned on me that people really don't know how to interact with ruins, and I think Milo did a great job explaining why you should not pick up sherds at archaeological sites. You should go watch it if you haven't already.

He was correct, you shouldn't pick up sherds because you are removing them from their cultural context, and you are creating the opportunity for people who don't care as much as they should to have an array of artifacts spread out in front of them with literally zero effort to take.

That goes for any time of historical site, not just ruins. Don't pick up stuff that doesn't belong to you, whether in a ruin, a geological formation, your grandma's house, it doesn't matter. Don't do that. Don't be a Tourist™. Be a tourist (respectful). Pay the park due, pay attention to signage, follow custodial instruction. And don't pick up pottery sherds.

[harpulator]

i kinda fucking hate 1.20

(image from the minecraft wiki)

Cherry blossom forests do not work at ALL for minecraft, and make the game look like half the textures were swapped for a 2015 kawaii texture pack. The color palette for this biome compared to the rest of minecraft clash so hard it's distracting, like an anime fan has a field day in aseprite. this looks bad.

I absolutely refuse to call this update "one point twenty", because it's NOT, it's update 3.0. updates went 1.8, 1.9, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12, that's not how decimals work. if we *were* at 1.9, the next logical step is 2.0, but for some reason nobody called it that. im no mathematician, but 1.20 is equal to 1.2.

Pottery feels like a mod. Not a good one, either. not even for minecraft mod standards. "oh you like creating things? create a pot!" why on earth would I build something small and lifelike with powers-worth of less combinations than if you were to build a house, or a castle, or whatever because it's minecraft. this feature doesn't tie into anything else, this is completely self contained and adds nothing except bloat to the game. why anyone would bother to do this in survival is beyond me.

I've been dying to rant about this one! Archaeology breaks minecraft's world building outright, and destroys any lore building to now. Minecraft has always had magic and occult themes; enchanting tools and items, pillagers and woodland mansions, potion brewing and witches, zombies and skeletons and giant spiders, the stronghold, the end portal (and igniting it via enemies' eyes), and now we have the most normal form of human science. if it was astronomy or botony or chemistry (alchemy would be sick but that's not a modern human science) then MAYBE but it ISN'T. it's fucking rocks. god knows they aren't gonna do anything creative like you find an ancient artifact or something, you just dust off "suspicious sand" and get in return just completely random and useless shit. If you're late game enough to start adventuring around in search of suspicious sand, why on EARTH would you need ANY of this?

now, to further this fruitless endeavor of adding more stuff from real life to make minecraft more "realistic" or whatever, why would they backpedal SO HARD to add the sniffer? An entirely fictional creature in an update with otherwise exclusively real life additions, there's no theme here. From what i've seen of the sniffer, it looks like a fine mob that actually has something worth adding to minecraft, it just digs around and has fun and acts like a big wacky turtle. love it. A+. why the fuck does it not spawn naturally. the only reason archaeology is useful to any degree to to spawn sniffers, and sniffers dont serve any functional purpose other than to rizzen up your base with ancient plants. why not just make sniffers dig up food for themselves, and then you can tame them to start digging up plants? having sniffers wander around would make the game way cooler, but instead they had to use them to justify a completely useless unrelated system to exist. god that pisses me off.

I had to get this out of my system, but I would like to use this blog for shit im doing in addition to long posts like these about whatever laith is thinking at 11 am on a sunday. I dont like limiting myself to just the funnies and having a shit ton of side blogs is annoying, so if you didnt like this change of form i am not sorry and I will be doing more. ok bye gang

[weekend-conspiracy-theorist]

I started up an episode of "America Unearthed", thinking it could be interesting and informative about different archaeological discoveries in the US, and then almost immediately turned it off again when the intro voice over was talking about ~the history the government doesn't want you to know~. Figured I'd give it a shot in case it was just lightly sensationalized in concept in order to attract viewers.

Yeah... the episode spent its time trying to prove that a group of artifacts found in Arizona were proof that a viking colony had formed in the USAmerican southwest. It did acknowledge the fact that there was a possibility the artifacts were brought as family heirlooms/etc by later Scandinavian immigrants, but it never touched on what was-- to me-- the more obvious potential explanation, which was that someone involved was lying.

The artifacts were presented by the son of a man (now deceased) who had run a pawn shop and had a woman bring the artifacts into the shop, claiming to have found them in a saddle bag out in the desert. That's two layers of removal in which 1) the dad could have gotten hold of them some other way and made up a fun story for his son or 2) the woman who brought them into the shop could have been lying about how she got hold of them. They don't know at this point who the woman was or have details about where they were found, so they have absolutely no way of verifying the story.

I don't know enough about the other archaeological details explored in the show to know whether they were bullshit (although parts did ping my radar as "I bet there are better explanations for that" and "this main guy (who is a geologist) is just saying stuff about the rock composition to sound like he knows what he's talking about, huh"), but rest assured, I googled reviews of the show afterwards and found some actual archaeologists ranting about how bad and misleading and conspiracy-centric the "science" on the show was, so I think I can lay any further curiosity to bed and keep looking for an actual good show to watch

[bookshelfdreams]

@throwing-roses-into-the-abyss YES AWESOME TIME FOR ME TO RANT ABOUT MY VERY FAVOURITE RL HEIST MOVIE

ok. the year is 1999, the place a forest in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany. Two guys with metal detectors are out there treasure hunting. They later claim they were looking for WWII munition, but who really knows. on top of a hill, their detectors beep and they start digging. They find: 2 bronze axes, 2 bronze swords, bronze armrings, and a round bronze disk with gold inlays they think might have been part of a shield.

Now there's 2 main problems here: a) They very quickly realize that they have found something very old, and by virtue of being very old, very valuable. b) They didn't have a permit for their treasure hunting, which means if they alert the authorities they will get fined and not reap the profits from whatever it is they have unearthed.

So they reasonably decide to quietly sell it to a grey-market salesperson for about 31.000DM, split the profits, and keep their mouths shut.

The whole treasure changes hands on the grey market multiple times, offered for several hundred thousand €, but it's hard to keep something like this quiet; rumours spread that there's a sensational find of immeasurable archaeological value, that legally belongs to the state of Sachsen-Anhalt, and it gets harder to find buyers.

Eventually Landesarchäologe Harald Meller hears about this and immediately knows he has to find a way to confiscate (or, if there's no alternative, purchase) the hoard, if he wants any chance of preserving information about it. He contacts the LKA Sachsen-Anhalt (the police department that investigates crimes) and then contacts the current owners, pretending to be interested in buying. They go back and forth a while but eventually agree to a meeting in a hotel Basel, Switzerland, to finalize the deal. The LKA contacts swiss police, there is an undercover mission planned: Meller will meet up with the sellers, alone, confirm the authenticity of the objects, and if they are indeed ancient artifacts, police will swoop in and arrest everyone.

They meet. One of the sellers has the sky disk under his sweater. They put it and other objects from the hoard on the table. Meller is presumably desperately trying not to vibrate out of his skin with excitement because he immediately recognizes that the other artifacts might very well be authentic and he has never seen anything like the sky disk before, but yeah, this is the real deal.

He excuses himself to go to the bathroom.

Tries to alert the authorities.

Can't get a connection on his cellphone (this was 2002, so not that unusual). Only panics mildly. Paces the bathroom, trying to find a spot where he can send off a text, finally manages to do it, returns to the table, tries his very best to act normal for the few minutes it takes for the police to show up and arrest everyone.

And finally - finally! - he holds the sky disk in his hands.

It's the oldest depiction of the cosmos we have found yet, between 3.700-4.100 years. It's not astronomically accurate; it shows the waxing and full moon and the plejades, but the other stars are arranged randomly. We know very little about the culture that made it or how it was used. It underwent several changes throughout it's history, but I don't want to bore you with all that, because our heist movie is not yet finished!

See, the problem is that due to being very rudely and amateurishly excavated, it was near impossible to accurately date the dist. The axes could be c14-dated because there were leftovers of bark on the handles, but the disk was entirely made of metal.

So. They went to the place where it was found. Cut down a lot of the trees. and carefully & generously dug out the block of earth where the robbers had found the whole hoard. The disk was still caked with earth so they could analyze and compare the soil, and then finally come to the conclusion, that yes, those objects were probably found together, buried together and are of the same age.

(then there's some more archaeology drama with someone trying to prove the disk is a fake by proving the gold is modern; however, the guy gets refuted and also is the same archaeologist who had the authenticity of a sensational gold hoard of his own called into question - by none other than Harald Meller.)

[cellarspider]

Whatcha reading? tagged by @brighteyedbadwolf​

Last Book:

Uhhh I read two concurrently

The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero by Robert Kaplan (1999). Overall a decent book, but has some blind spots. It tries to provide a comprehensive history of human understanding of zero, including its use as a placeholder that makes it extremely useful for more complex calculations. It includes Babylonian use of zero, but fails to include then-current scholarship on Egyptian use of zero in accounting and architectural diagrams.

It provides decent explanations of most of its content... up until math from within the past two hundred years enters the picture. Then I think the author falls down a bit on reaching a lay audience, which it seems to have been geared towards. The last section of the book wanders off into the use of zero and nothing in literature and philosophy, which I feel falls into the trap of presenting the personally important as universally meaningful.

The Atoms of Language: The Mind's Hidden Rules of Grammar by Mark C. Baker (2001). I had somehow remained agnostic about Chomskyist linguistics up until reading this book. Halfway through, I wanted to fight Noam behind a Dennys.

I can and will rant about this book if anybody's interested. I have loud feelings about this book and its subject matter.

Last Song:

Two again:

Moonlight Blue by Miracle of Sound. For those who don't know what it's about, it feels like a song that would've gone over a fantastic, tragic AMV back when that was more of a thing. For those who know Elden Ring: It's Ranni and Blaidd. And it's really good.

Nikkal, by Heilung. It's their version of an excerpt from the oldest songs we know how to sing, an Ugaritic hymn to the titular goddess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrian_songs The tablet it was found on has some missing sections, but it includes musical notation that people have been able to reconstruct. It's 3400 years old. HOW HECKING COOL IS THAT.

Last Movie:

Prometheus, with a friend who knew that I had Loud Opinions about it.

In brief, the movie has beautiful cinematography and visual design, and I have a minor obsession with the Engineers from this movie. The pace of the movie's editing is ever so slightly off in a way that would help increase tension if the rest of the movie wasn't Prometheus.

For context: I have a background in history and archaeology, then switched to genetics. I have a hobbyist passion for linguistics.

This movie is specifically designed to drive me insane. Again, I can and will rant about this if anybody pokes me to do so.

Currently Working On:

A materials test for what's either going to be a cosplay or just a really weird artifact in my possession.

Tagging:

@zeekist​, @apocalypse-angel​, anybody else who wants to, I guess?? No pressure.

[onyxbird]

Whatever some of her colleagues seemed to think, there was more to archaeology than obtaining ancient artifacts by any possible means and bringing them back to the university. (And that wasn't even touching on the wild tales of curses, magic, or religious artifacts melting people's faces off.)

Brandishing an ancient idol “discovered” in a crumbling Peruvian temple and carried out while dodging miraculously still-functioning ancient booby traps was all very impressive to wide-eyed undergrads, but reputable scholars and journals wanted the information one could glean about the site and its historical inhabitants, not a single shiny object yanked carelessly from it's place and leaving a structure steeped in rich history to crumble in its wake.

I decided to play around with starting to put Indiana Jones AU into fic form, and AU Maggie immediately decided to grab onto my brain and use this platform to rant about a colleague and his "archaeology." (Sorry, Maggie. His approach sucks, and I know he annoys you, but unfortunately you do live in action-adventure land, and I think he may have been serious about the face-melting.)

[bluedemiknight]

The Love For Fossils

-------------------

Part 1: Opportunity

Sonic: Amy Rose, Shadow

---------------

She has been waiting for this moment her whole life! She is finally graduating with her Degree in Archaeology and other sciences. She is walking up to the podium to except her certificate and make her valedictorian speech.

She hears the cheers of her fellow graduates and smiles. They all toss their caps in the air with a unified cheer and she can’t wait to live her dream.

------------------

Two months later.....

Amy sits at her desk as she waits for time to go by. Here she is in an science museum and she is a mere coffee girl to the Marine Biology Department Leader. She isn’t even the assistant! She didn’t spend all that time in college to waste all of the degrees she got.

“Sigh...This is not how I thought my life would go....”, she sighed to herself.

“Miss Amy! There is a shipment coming in this afternoon at 1:30, can you please take the shipment to the Sanitation Lab while I sign the papers?”

She looked up at the Department Manager and nodded.

“Sure, is Professor Lea not in today?”

“Unfortunately, no. She’s on leave.”

Amy sat up straight.

“But Professor Lea is the Department Leader! Who will take her place?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve been thinking of asking her assistant, but she doesn’t have the stomach for dirt. She is a Germaphobe.”

“Dirt? Don’t you mean water?”

“Well, a mess is a mess.”

“How about Dr. Hernandez? He has the same experience and Degree.”

The Department Manager thought for a moment and smiled.

“You’re right Miss Amy! He would be a great fit, you know, if you ever get a chance you should try for an assisting job.”

She watches the Department Manager leave, before slumping back onto the desk.

---------------------------------------------------

“She still hadn’t acknowledge my doctorates at all..... I’m a Doctor! A Geologist! An Archaeologist! For crying out loud, I’m a Marine Biologist and Oceanologist too! ....Bioengineer..... Minor in Technics...so many degrees....No one can call Amy Rose anything less than intelligent!”, she rants in her mind as she passes around coffees the next day.

That morning was busy with the content of yesterday's shipment being revealed. The whole department were gossiping as too why they even got it in the first place when they were supposed to only take care of fish and sea related items.

“This has nothing to do with fish! Or the ocean! This is a land artifact!”, one said.

“Maybe there was a mix up?”

-----------

How.

Just.

How.

How did it come to this?

Well, this particular Science Museum has high pride, anything that embarrasses them in the tiniest amount is unacceptable.

That means she is fired. Why her, you ask?

Simple.

The Department Manager pushed the blame for not checking the content of the shipment on her. 

“I was only doing what I was told! I was doing my job!”, she screams into her pillow.

--------------

Here’s how it happen:

The shipment came and the both of them went to greet the delivery men.

The Department Manager started talking and signing right way. She looked on with a sweat. 

“Wait, should we-”

“Miss Amy, hurry and bring the shipment to the Sanitation Department. I want to keep it as untampered with as possible until then.”

“But-”

“Now, now. Please, stop worrying and take the shipment!”

She reluctantly did so.

How's it was told:

The shipment came and the both of them went to greet the delivery men.

The Department Manager starts to read the documents and Amy goes over to the shipment.

The Department Manager hears the sound of wheels and turns to see Amy walking a way with the shipment. Trusting Amy’s judgement, they sign the documents despite the inconsistency of the papers.

--------------

Amy then tries to calm down with some Boxing. She wasn’t being paid so highly, but she managed to get a sandbag.

The more she punched, the stronger the sandbag swinged. Her last punch made the sandbag launched into the wall and rip a big hole in it. Sand got everywhere.

“Oh no! Seriously?”

She glared down at the mess when her phone rings.

“Hello? Amy Rose speaking.”

“Miss Amy? It’s Professor Hernandez. I have an Opportunity for you.”

-------------

Chapter one

[ritualpurposes]

Why History is Important

This week has been a week of terrible takes on History, Politics and how the two intersect. From the appalling article in the Telegraph on how the “woke masses” are trying to sabotage Britain’s history (I won’t give this the dignity of a link, but it is easy enough to find), the continued harassment and vilification of Dr Corinne Fowler for her work on the Colonial Countryside Project, to the release of the utterly disgusting 1776 commission in the US and as always, the plethora of ‘hot takes’ on Tumblr, I am seething with rage.

This is a long one, apologies. I won’t go into Tumblrs approach to history, that has been better covered by others here, and here and honestly this rant is long enough as is. 

Archaeology and history are inherently political, that is an inescapable fact. People are quick to turn up their noses at the subject of the past and say it has no bearing on the present, but that is a simplistic fantasy. The present is always built of the back of the past, our attitudes, our justifications, our worldviews are all artifacts of what has come before. And when our understanding of what came before is, shall we charitably say, flawed, that is dangerous. The links between the alt. right, white supremacy and fake, white –washed, hyper masculine ideas of the past are well documented. Many of these people justify their actions using versions of the past which to them are very real, ideas of a white ethno-state where the men were Men™. It should be noted, this isn’t a modern phenomenon, I’m pretty sure anyone who has had to sit through intro to archaeology has had to listen to at least once lecture on how Hitler used pseudo archaeology to justify his actions. And while academics can point out that Roman Britain was not white, or that the Vikings traded and intermarried with people from North Africa, these attempts are hindered, both by popular perceptions of the past, and by this idea that the left are attempting to rewrite history.

I find that last point difficult really to deal with, because it combines two opposing ideas, that historians want to make the past more ‘politically correct’ but also downplay the ‘greatness’ of whatever nation they are talking about by talking about the distinctly not political correct bits of history (colonialism and slavery).  There is this overwhelming idea that adding any sort of nuance is the result of massive bias. And that any history that doesn’t make your nation look 100% the Heroic Good Guys is part of some sort of plot to undermine national pride and patriotism. The Tories are terrified we might remove statues of slavers, but in the same breath attack the National Trust for trying to talk about the Colonial legacies of their properties.

I think at this point it’s also worth discussing the difference between history and commemoration.  I am 100% in support of removing statues, and of renaming streets etc. These things are not history, they are commemoration. History is found in museums, in books, in scholarship. History is knowledge, it is not objects but the context that surrounds them.  The removal of a statue does not equal rewriting history, a statue, while an archaeologically interesting artifact, does not in and of itself tell us much. Its context is far more revealing. There is an idea in archaeology called object biography, that looks at how items change in meaning and use throughout their ‘lives’. Items are not static, just like ideas are not static. In the 19th century that statue meant something very different to the people who are around today. What we commemorate, and what commemorations we destroy tell us about society. If the history of Edward Coulston is so important (a man, who I had never heard of before the statue was thrown into the river, so clearly not a priority in English history), then put the statue in a museum with an information board. And if you are really worried about the destruction of history? Why don’t you spend your time and money instead ensuring archaeological work gets done ahead of development or making sure history departments are adequately funded. Interesting, the Torries, while very concerned about statues, are actively fighting those two measures. I know less about the Republican agenda, but looking at the 1776 project, I’m pretty sure that any concern they have for history is less about the past and more about preserving the status quo.

I grew up in America. I took AP US history, and I remember having to write papers about how the Civil War was absolutely not about Slavery. I guess that doesn’t seem that harmful in and of itself, but let’s trace this bit of revisionism through shall we. The Civil war was over States rights, that doesn’t sound too bad. I mean I may not agree with the South, but is it really a moral issue to say that the Federal Government shouldn’t be able to override what individual States want? After all States are very different, what is good for New York might not be so good for Georgia. Ok, so using that logic I don’t really see what’s wrong with flying a confederate flag, I mean it can’t possibly be a symbol of oppression, because the Civil War *wasn’t* about Slavery. So I don’t see why people are getting all upset, it is simply a statement that States Rights are important.

Add to this the general romanticized picture of the Confederate South in the media and you suddenly are looking at a very different picture of the past, supported by, of all things, the fucking AP US History curriculum. The Confederates are seen as tragic heroes, on the wrong side of history perhaps, but with a point, fighting for a way of life.  And from there it doesn’t seem too far a leap to what happened on January 6 does it?  I’m not saying all media should demonize the South, but I think removing Slavery from the Civil war is dangerous and false representation of History, and one that directly plays into the Civil Unrest we are seeing at the Moment.

So that brings me back to the 1776 commission. It was published as a direct response to the 1619 Project. The 1619 Project sought to center slavery and its effects on American history. This is hugely important, and a weirdly contentious issue. The echos of slavery are still present in the USA, in the form of institutionalized racism, voter suppression, and increased levels of police brutality among other things. It is, at best impossibly naive and at worst actively malicious, to try and consider US history without dealing with the brutal legacy of slavery. And yet, this project was deemed to be ‘UnAmerican’ and ‘revisionist’. How dare any history of America undermine the idea that America is, and has always been, A noble nation that has never done anything wrong ever. To return briefly to my own experiences with AP US History, our textbook said we didn’t lose Vietnam (My father who was a war correspondent in Vietnam had some things to say about that comment). The myth of American Exceptionalism runs deep. The 1776 commission, which I have not brought myself to read in its entirety, is a horrific example of it. It justifies slavery, it states that “as a question of practical politics, no durable union could have been formed without a compromise among the states on the issue of slavery.”, states racism ended in 1964, and that Christianity is the reason we have secular law.

Why does this scare the shit out of me? Why do I care what people believe happened 200 years ago? Because if people truly believe that America can do no wrong, that patriotism means never questioning that we really will live in Trump’s America. Because if Slavery was justified, and racism doesn’t exist anymore than clearly we don’t have to do better, and any complaints are communist plot.  Because if Empire really did make England Great then why should we not continue in the same vain? History is grand! Let us live in the Good Ol’ Days!

History is messy. History is unpleasant. History doesn’t fit into simple narratives of good and bad, because people don’t fit into those categories. And while I agree it is impossible to teach history without some bias (interpretation being a key part), we need to accept our past. If we want a brighter future we need to confront where we come from. We need to fight the false narratives prevalent in our culture, be they the idea that Game of Thrones is a good picture of Medieval England or that the Civil War was over a simple ideological difference and not the lives of thousands of enslaved peoples. The best bit of advice on history I ever got was from my high school teacher “If you want to live in the past you haven’t been paying attention”, I think about that statement a lot. The past has power, let us not pretend otherwise.

[bowlerhatwearer]

Alexander Rambleblay (Sonic OC)

Name: Alexander Rambleblay

Nickname(s): Alex, Ramble

Job: (Unsuccessful) writer of pseudo-archaeological books and articles, pseudo-Archaeologist

Gender: male

Age: 46

Species: Human

Family: Sister, Brother

Relationship: Single

Misc:

He claims to have a Doctor and Professor in History which is actually a lie, same goes for his claim to won prizes

Accessed and dug on property without authorization.

His income comes mostly from donation, writing articles for pseudoscientific magazines, tabloids or dime novels (the latter often influenced by his pseudo-archaeological believes who people believe to be science-fiction.  

Despite his often financial dim looking situation he’s clothed quite fancy

Speaking about finances, he’s often supported by his siblings (Alex is the youngest from two other siblings)  

In his family he’s considered the “black sheep” due of the lawsuits he gathered over time.

It happens from time to time that the monocle he wears falls down (luckily for him it’s attached on a copper chain)

Appearance:

Due of constant outside “research trips for Archaeological purposes” (whenever his free time allows) Rambleblays skin color got a strong tan, to prevent sunburn he wears as a form of protection a straw hat. His physical high is around 1,63 meters and he weighs 58 kilograms. The hair color of Alexander is dirty blonde, they’re shoulder long and mostly straight. The eyes have an indigo dye  color, on the left side he wears a monocle in a copper colored frame. Alexanders facial hair has the same color as the one on his head, it’s grown to a bushy full beard covering everything around the mouth till the chin.

Alexander prefers to wear a white shirt with short sleeves together with a bow tie and suspenders are kept in emerald green. The trousers are made with a grape purple fabric, on the right and left side of the trousers are stripes in the same green color like the bow tie and suspenders.

His shoes are kept in a cocoa brown color with black ties and beige soles.

Alexander prefers to wield a cane, which he does not need actually but uses either way as a tool or make-shift weapon.

During rain or winter he prefers to wear over his casual clothing a forest green trench coat together with a same colored homburg hat that’s decorated with a thistle colored band around the hat.  

Formal he wears a simple black tie dress code.

Personality:

The first three words that come into someone's mind if they know Alexander Rambleblay is self-centered, arrogant and know it all. The self declared “Ace-Archaeologist” wants that everyone plays by his rules when it comes to excavations, even if it means to destroy evidence him theories might be in the wrong or altering them. Alexander enjoys to be in the middle of attention, he will try under all circumstances to keep up his reputation, even if it means to denounce your opponent and spreading lies and rumors about them.

Speaking of Lying, Alexander is quite good in spreading lies about himself, those who make him appear in a good light only of course. Whenever it’s that he got a prize or an honorary title, might it even be as exaggerated as possible, there are people who believe him. Together with what some people would claim as “charm” it gives an interesting mixture but dangerous to those who stand in his way.

Despite his selfish attitude Rambleblay is quite intelligent, especially when it comes to manipulate people, or artifacts. The human can’t stand critic or doubt in his works and calls everyone outdated or ignorant who tries to prove him otherwise or even have solid prove that his historic theories are false or got dis proven a long time ago.

Speaking about his manipulation skills, since it was mentioned that he is ruthless about destroying or editing archeological evidence, the same applies for using false business cards that make him appear to be a Doctor, Professor or having a master degree.

When out of words that could back him up he changes to private topics that he tries to use against his opponents, may they be in private or due scientific meetings. Alexander can be very focused and has a good long and short therm memory. Although good in entangling critics in words and meaningless discussions Rambleblay prefers to keep them short so he can focus on something else, but it’s also said that he can go on long rants from time to time, where he isn’t scared to call for a judicial hearing to see who is in the right.

Most of his time when he’s not doing (illegal) diggings and or research he either way reads books, writes or gives interviews. Although he believes in his own pseudo-archaeological theories he does not mind to read the one or other article from true archeological or science magazines, might it only be for the reasons to “re-use” some parts for his own works or to look for new places to dig.  

Given his liking for attention he sometimes likes to invite himself to seminars or archaeologic conventions, where once again he has discussions and arguments with other people who often turn into (verbal) fights, another reason why many people in archeological fields see in him not only not a real researcher, a nut job but also a troublemaker.

Whilst being banned from at least 20 campuses and as much conventions Alexander holds a grand reputation on the internet, especially social media and video sharing websites. Whilst not having an own channel on the latter many people upload his discussions and talk about his books or other scientific papers and review them, positively for him often in a good light. (Of course there are critics but even his lawyer is powerless against those who reject him, all he can do is painfully ignore them)

Skills/Strengths:

Writing

Cogency

Manipulation

Archiving

High Vocabulary

Weaknesses/Limitations:

Hot headed

  Arrogant

Egocentric

Easily Offended

Know it all

History:

Born in Station Square Alexander grew up as the youngest of three children, growing up in a middle class family, with a father as headmaster of a middle school and his mother being a primary school teacher. Early in his live the young Rambleblay took an interest in history but also reading and writing science fiction. Whilst first intended to graduate in a school for arts he later changed his mind and went to a place that educated more about ancient history.

Whilst he finished University with a Bachelor with praise he never finished his Master due of him voluntary ceasing his activity there. He worked for some time due of his dissatisfaction of what was taught. In Alex theory such grand buildings like temples or pyramids could have not been done by some ancient or primitive civilizations like school used to taught but rather that they went into the wrong directions due of according to his own words “using outdated data”, researching on his own for a long time the Bachelors theory became more and more clear to him.

Ancient civilizations where only pretending to be ancients, actually they had been god like, able to uses modern weapons and technology the society he lived in could only dream off, but those technologies where a well kept secret thus the “real primitive” tribes would not find out about their “technological superiority. According to Alex believe either way due of a forgotten event these civilizations laid down their technological ways and with times the technology got forgotten, or that due of a war they hid down in a vault deep down into the planets where they now live, given that they do not seek to disturb nor help the People that live now on the outer shell of the planet. That extraterrestrial live or godlike creatures might have their hands in this is something Alex does not rule out. Due of this and many other crazy theories many colleagues or supervisors who worked with him together in delight now turned their backs on him, claiming to have lost a good friend to mad theories.

It got even more damaged when discovered that not only was he hiding or stealing sometimes excavated objects of interests and keep them for himself, but also that he also claimed them to be of different purpose, altered or even destroyed them.  

Thrown out by historical and archaeological societies Alexander began to form his own circle of believers and theorists who supported him. With the help of some more influencing pseudo scientists and archaeologists he was able to pull some lawsuits and to become famous on social media, securing his status and making some of his critics silent. Still in a quite a financial trouble he went to his siblings who lent him money (much to their and their families displeasure)

Having built up new reputation the self declared “modern archaeologist” began to hold more seminars, interviews in (pseudo)scientific papers and writing his own books. With the help of the donations he was able to pay for the remaining costs of his lawsuits and pay for advertisements on the internet, making him more popular and (in)famous than he ever was before.

Alexander Rambleblay attempts to get government funding and approval for an own excavation on well known ruins, believing it to be the capital of the “Ancient people” and digging in what he believes to be a gigantic chamber full of treasure and ancient powerful technology way superior than current ones. Archaeologists and Historians alike try with all power they have to stop him due of the theory that it actually might be a gigantic natural methane gas that might cause of either way to blow up the whole place or  make it sink in.

Currently he’s writing on his seventh book and tries to get support for a side project that whilst not much is known about appears to involve the ancient flying islands and their underground ruins where he assumes another outpost of the “ancient us superior civilization that just awaits to be awoken, that might even be from another planet!” Needless to say he’s already started an online donation for this new fraud scientific adventure with lots of secret technology, conspiracy, mystery and especially irrefutable stuff. (According to his latest article in a magazine)  

[moony-studies]

OMG SAMEEEEE. However, I would like to develop my opinion.

Coming from Mexico where archaeology and later on cultural anthropology, have settled down the foundations of the "State" and employing the Mesoamerican cultures as the "root of 'our' identity as mexicans", just to built a story of victors against the foreign enemy while historycally forgetting and putting in disadvantage their indigenous communities.

The Mexican State sells the idea of these 'great and advanced civilizations' by proffiting of the economical gains the archaeological record offer in tourist attractions, but keep turning its head from the demands of the actual "descendants". Being in Tumblr, in contact with what a lot of usamericans posts, it still schocks me when I see things like the mayas magically disappeared, when they're right there.

Yes, the archaeological and physical remains are important, but these artifacts have been employed to encapsulate the indigenous communities in the past and looking over them.

HOWEVER

What the general public omits when they think about forensic anthropology is that this branch does not just worry about any remains.

When you live in a context where thanks to forensic anthropology can help identify some else's loved one, your perspective changes about it.

Because these are not any remains, those are *humans* remains. Someone's brother, someone's Mother, someone's sibling's or loved-one's. Someone with a biography, with joys, fears and regrets.

Because I love people. And I deeply hate when people just talk about them as piles of bones and flesh, and rip away their humanity. Finding a person can also mean for a family to have a body to grief and say goodbye to or a way to obtain justice.

My rant, is not directed towards OP (my apologies if I made you felt like it was) but to express my frustration towards the collective poor image people have about what anthropology is and its potentials.

Because people go like 'ooh bones' but is not a matter of the bones themselves. The *anthropo* part in anthropology stands for human being and they do not stop being one after death.

So, in conclusion. I find horrifying when people care more about the ancient dead people more than the people in the present. But when studying the dead, they should never be taken out their humanity and, the living can also and its study could offer peace towards their living peers.

Sorry for doing this so long, for any part that doesn't make sense, or for any grammar o spell mistake (my first lenguaje is spanish as i am mexican and it's late in the night, I wanted to sleep but my adhd braid said: raaaant.)

i find it so sad as an anthropology student that people only really care about forensic anthropology??? i'm in love with people and you want me to talk about their remains??? no!!!

[multiversecrossroads]

Lazy Sunday.

She hates him, Astrid repeats under her breath as she waits for Jun to answer the door already. It’s not a blushing denial of her true feelings, or some bullshit like that. She can’t lie anymore, not even to herself. In this moment, standing in front of Jun’s apartment at 11 o’clock in the morning (seriously why is he still not up), she hates him. For not understanding what their job is. For never taking anything seriously. For making her fix the fuckups that inevitably result from the first two points.

Finally, he opens the door, wearing a kimono that she swears she saw in the window of Ragstock two weeks ago. She doesn’t give him a chance to speak. 

“What’s this I hear about you hanging out with--goblins?” Her mouth puckers up around the word in distaste. “And not only that, but helping humans and goblins get all friendly again?”

“Um... yes?” He scratches the side of his head and the kimono gapes open at his chest. There’s a nasty cut going across his pectorals. It looks like the same one he got fighting those Black Court boot-lickers a few days ago. “Isn’t that a good thing?”

“No, idiot, it is not,” she snaps. “Because if the humans and the goblins are all kumbaya, it means the city is still under Wyldfae control. And you are supposed to be working for Winter, remember? And you--” She flaps a hand at his wound. “You still haven’t taken care of that gash on your chest!”

She realizes what she’s said as his mouth pulls into a lazy grin. “I could take care of your gash on my--”

“Don’t,” she commands. “Just invite me in, stupid, we can’t talk about this out here.”

Jun’s grin downgrades to a smirk, still too pleased with himself for her liking. But he turns to the side, opening the way for her. “Come on in, then.”

Astrid breezes past him. She can feel the air swirling around his wings, glamoured into invisibility, as he closes the door. He hides them all the time now. It’s easy to forget that he’s fae at all.

“So,” she begins, arms crossed. “Where’s your first aid kit?”

Jun’s first aid kit is a plastic bag containing a tube of calamine lotion, a box of Transformers band-aids, an Icy/Hot patch, and three gauze pads. He shrugs when she glares up at him in disbelief. “It’s a work in progress.”

“Oh my god.” She pinches the bridge of her nose and takes in a breath. “Whatever. It’ll have to do.”

It takes a few minutes of debating to convince Jun that a row of twelve band-aids will not, in fact, be the best method to use. He doesn’t hesitate to bring up that the last time she had to use a bandage was when they were teenagers and she scraped her leg in gym. They end up using his phone to Google “bandaging a cut” to settle the matter; the results side with her, and Astrid mutters how she knew she was right, and how could he forget about disinfectant, anyway.

The closest thing he has to disinfectant is Hawkeye vodka. He hisses as she splashes it over his cut, which lights a little ember of satisfaction in her chest. “Don’t waste all of it, damn,” he mutters when she gives him an extra shot. 

She sniffs and screws the cap back on. “What, are you making jungle juice later? You can’t possibly drink this straight.”

“Pssh. That’s quitter talk.” 

Astrid rolls her eyes. “All the money the court pays you, and you don’t even buy decent liquor.” She walks the enormous bottle back to the kitchen and returns it to its spot atop the refrigerator. “It’s such a waste.”

She turns around in time to see Jun emerge from the bathroom, the top half of his kimono hanging loose around the belt. He’s still slim, always has been, but there’s muscle in his arms and shoulders that wasn’t there just a short time ago. (Six years ago, she realizes. That’s the last time she saw him without a shirt.) If she squints, she can make out the outline of his wings. 

But then he notices her staring, and he leans one elbow against the wall and grins at her like he’s some kind of fucking Lothario. “See something you like?”

She scoffs. “I liked you better when you were hissing in pain.”

He just wags his eyebrows at her. “Going full fae made you kinkier, huh? I can work with that.”

Because she doesn’t feel shame the way a mortal does, she thinks about it, just for a second. About how he’d flinch and gasp if she walked up and raked her nails down his chest. The thought must show on her face, because Jun’s cheesy smile drops, and for a split second he’s vulnerable in his surprise.

She’ll remember that look on his face later, when she’s back home in the Nevernever. For now, she takes the chance to re-focus him. “Getting back to your open wound. You need something to hold the gauze pads in place.”

Jun straightens up and glances away. He rubs his chest parallel to the cut, a few inches below it. “Um. I’ve got... duct tape? Somewhere.”

“Duct tape,” she echoes. It seems like it should work. Sturdy, adhesive, at least sterile enough to be near a wound if not touching it. Still... “Google if it’s safe,” she orders.

“Wow, what would I do without you?” He rolls his eyes, but he heads back into the bathroom, where his phone is resting on the counter. If only he heeded her that well all the time.

Then again, there’s something nostalgic about their bickering. And if it really comes down to it, she can always geas him.

“So--remind me again why you’re pissed?”

Astrid purses her lips. She’s holding the gauze pads in place while Jun stretches the duct tape over their upper edges. “You seriously don’t get it?”

“I’m just saying, you lost me somewhere between ‘ranting about alliances’ and ‘playing doctor’.”

Right. She hadn’t made sure her point got through that dense skull of his. “The argument over the girl--”

“Sonia.”

“--I don’t care. That was the perfect excuse to start a fight with the goblins and drive them out of the city. Then Winter could start to take more control.” The duct tape flattens over the top of the gauze pads; she gives them a little push before she lets her hands drop. “But instead you did the opposite. And now we’ve got to find some other way to get a stronger foothold for the court.”

“‘We’?” he snorts. “That’s asking for a whole lot of initiative from someone who’s supposed to just be an informant.”

Oh, Jun. Still allergic to work. And as clueless as ever. She snatches the roll of duct tape from his grasp and pulls out a strip for the bottom of the gauze. “You’ve stolen one too many archaeological artifacts to still be just an informant.”

“Yeah, because you didn’t give me a choice.”

“So? You still did it.” He’s not getting the picture, and she doesn’t feel like explaining it to him. A swipe of her fingertips seals the duct tape against his skin. She steps back and tilts her chin up at his wound. “There. Now you won’t die of gangrene or whatever.”

“Convincing,” he mutters. He scratches at the duct tape for a second, then suddenly looks at her with a curious light in his eyes. “Hey, does weed still work on you?”

It’s such a 180 that she isn’t sure how to answer for a moment. She barely smoked when she was mortal, even less now. “I--haven’t had a chance to try it.” Her eyes narrow. “Why?”

Jun shrugs, ever so nonchalant. “Well, I was going to smoke a bowl and watch some Regular Show. I figured I should offer you some before you bitch me out for being a bad host or something.” He raises his eyebrows at her as he backs out of the bathroom. “So, you want to try it?”

Astrid drags her thumbnail over the ridged side of the duct tape roll. She is curious how drugs might affect her, now. And the way Jun phrased it makes it a matter of hospitality, not of ensuring he didn’t owe her for patching him up. She could still leverage a favor out of him later.

“All right.” She ditches the duct tape on one of the bathroom shelves and exits to the living room. 

Jun is already parked on his futon, packing a bowl with the ease of experience. “First hit’s yours,” he says as she sits down.

It takes her a moment to recover the memory, like sifting through the weeds at the bottom of a lake bed to find a ring. High school, before she’d chosen fae, Jun’s basement. What, the class princess is too good to sit and smoke? This not expensive enough for you? The emotions of that moment (indignation, frustration, a certain contrary resolve) come to her like sounds from above the waves. Muffled and distorted enough that they lose any urgency. 

Most of her memories are like that now. But it doesn’t really concern her. She keeps the important parts--in this case, the mechanics of taking a pull from the small glass pipe, her thumb over the carb. Smoke plumes in her mouth and trails down to her lungs. The burn is familiar, but her body shrugs it off instead of coughing like she did before.

She sits back, hands the pipe off to Jun, and watches his hands cradle the glass while she waits to feel something.

When she was still considering the Choice, she sought out other nixies in an attempt to understand what she might become. On the banks of a river in the Nevernever that shifted course depending on where she looked, she asked three of them, The last person you drowned--why’d you do it?

Why do you eat? one answered. I killed my last because I was hungry, simple as that.

The second raked a hand through her seaweed-green hair. He deserved it, she replied. He was cruel, and he was trespassing in my pond.

The third sculled her hand through the water. Because he would have changed. Her voice was soft as she lifted her hand, a tiny, flailing, iridescent fish in her upturned palm. He wouldn’t have been mine anymore. This way I get to keep him as he was.

Jun is chuckling on every third word, smile easy and eyes hooded. There’s a glow coming off him like a neon sign on a foggy night. Soft and comforting and a little unearthly. He can’t see it, she’s pretty sure. He’d probably just make some joke about how high she is if she brings it up.

And maybe she is a little high--she takes another long drag to keep up with the way her body churns through the smoke’s effects--but it’s not like she doesn’t see this shit all the time. She’s just slowed down enough to appreciate it now. It seems special again, like it did when she first went fae.

“This goblin motherfucker’s--holding himself up with his one jacked arm, an’ holding the tap to his mouth with his skinny one--an’ he’s just obliterating this keg. Could hardly believe it.” His head lolls back against the futon, turning towards her, and he holds his hand out. “I mean, I don’t think he was any taller than the keg.”

She passes him the pipe. “Sounds like they’ve been sneaking into frat parties.” 

“Fuck, could you imagine? A goblin frat.” He draws from the pipe and holds it for a second or so before exhaling streams of smoke from his nostrils. “Gamma Omicron Beta.”

She huffs out a laugh at that, leans sideways against the futon and uses her arm as a pillow. She’s surprised he knew the right Greek letter to use for “O”. “They’re basically already a frat. Just with more bow-hunting.”

“Jesus. Small mercy the Brothers crowd hasn’t taken up that hobby.” 

He holds the pipe out for her again. She reaches for it and feels her hand clip something unseen right as his eyes scrunch up in discomfort. When she holds the pipe at the ready, there’s a shimmer on the outer edge of her hand that’s the same color as Jun’s glow.

“You must want a wing cramp if you’re sitting like that.” She pauses, her lips pursed but not quite touching the pipe, and raises an eyebrow at Jun. 

"Are you my dad now? They’re fine.” Still, he slumps forward, forehead touching his knees. The air above his back shivers for half a second, and then his wings pop into view, iridescent purple, doubled and tapering into long, fine points. “See?”

She does. She reaches out to trace her fingertips over the edge of a lower wing, the pipe forgotten. His wings flutter in response, releasing a tiny burst of sparkles where she made contact. He turns his head so his temple is on his knee and looks up at her. There’s sleepy curiosity in his eyes.

“I haven’t seen them in a while,” she explains. “They’re--different. Bigger than they used to be.”

She hadn’t meant in terms of how much space they took up. More like the impression they made on reality. But a smile slides onto his face and she already knows what he’s about to say, so she cuts him off by slapping his shoulder.

He lets out a fake whine that dissolves into a laugh. “Come on, you walked right into that one.”

“I swear, it’s like you’re still in high school.”

“Yeah, yeah. I think you miss it.”

He sits up and lifts his arms over his head, his back bending into an elegant arch. She watches him stretch for a moment, then turns her attention back to the pipe. “I don’t,” she replies, and pauses long enough to take a hit. “I thought I was such hot shit back then. Now I know what real power is.”

“Listen to you. Reeeal poweeeer...” He puts on a cartoon villain sneer that lasts for half a second before it breaks into more giggles. “So that outweighs all of it? All the shenanigans, the adoring masses? Smacking me down for being a dumbass on the regular?”

“I still do that last one.” She bonks him on the head with the pipe before handing it back. “So yes. It does.”

“Awww.” He bats his eyelashes, his wings following along. While he’s holding the next hit in his lungs, he goes contemplative, squinting and nodding. He releases the smoke in a slow plume and looks sidelong at her. “Maybe I should try it, then. If you like it so much.”

A prick of annoyance taints her high. “It’s not something you try.” The Choice, once made, is permanent. That was one of the first things they learned, as changeling children just tracked down by the court. Choosing alters your very nature.

She imagines Jun’s foggy-neon glow gone sharp and glaring, and shakes her head. “It wouldn’t suit you, anyway.”

No. In this moment, this is how she likes him--foolish and familiar, unthinkingly kind and relentlessly malleable. A man wearing through his teenage self. Human. Not. A memory, playing and changing in real time.

But even if she can’t lie anymore, saying something honestly is a different beast. 

She stands up, refusing the pipe when Jun tries to hold it out to her. “I need to get going. You’re not the only one I need to talk to today.”

“Damn. Guess I gotta smoke all this weed by myself.” He levers himself off the couch to see her out. When she glances back at him, his wings are invisible again. “Good thing I’m up to that challenge. I’m a real go-getter.”

She rolls her eyes at that. “Just don’t show up high tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Show up where?”

Astrid pauses in front of his door, hand on the knob, and turns to face him. “College Green Park, after dusk. You’ll be flying me around the city, making some deliveries together.” A sharp smirk slides onto her face, an imitation of one she used to wear. “So you can see what working for Winter actually looks like.”

There’s wariness in his red-rimmed eyes for a moment. Then it’s overtaken by mischief, and he leans toward her. “Ooh, so you mean a date?”

“Not a date.” She pushes him away with a palm on his forehead. (Lightly. She doesn’t want to chuck him through the wall.)

He laughs as he regains his balance; eddies of air from his wings brush her arms. “If you say so, boss. I’ll be there.”

“You’d better.” And he will, she knows. For all his delinquent tendencies, Jun hasn’t yet missed a meeting with her. Even if he only shows up because he wants to tease her about something.

She pulls the door open and strides away before he can fire off another comment. With her high wearing off, her tolerance for his shenanigans is plummeting again. By the time she reaches the sidewalk outside Deadwood, she’s already thinking about her next meeting.

But when she makes it back to the Nevernever at the end of the day, there’s still a streak of shimmer on her hand. Soft neon, iridescent purple. She decides she doesn’t want to wash it off.

[leos-ng]

～Mio～2016 It had been a while since I work on an original character and a while since I did a witch :p. This is work is basically paying a tribute to all the unnamed witches I did so many years back. Currently I am thinking of doing an entire series of Witches and Wizards characters, Mio here will will be a start. I will do a few more sketches and artworks of her before I move on to the next.  Do support by favoriting and sharing :)

And because a couple Taiwanese master artists (Loiza and Krenzart) that I met at AFA16 recommend that I can try translating some of my texts to chinese so that I can communicate with other chinese followers online.... So here I go.....

因為在AFA16時遇到的倆位來自台灣的大師Loiza和Krenzart建議我用中文來翻譯原文，讓其他華族朋友可以了解我的作品。 很久沒畫原創人物了。這畫可以算一種對過去畫過的無名巫女們的一種回顧。我目前打算畫一系列的巫女和魔法師。 Mio 小妹將是這系列的第一位，接著我多畫幾張 Mio 的素描然後再構思下一位人物 ~Mio never intended to be a witch, her true calling is archaeology and history. But a combination of her impoverish family and her natural talent with magic, she were destined to leave her mark in the world as a witch.   But excelling in magic does had it's perks, not counting the magical abilities and artifact she had access. Ruins inaccessible to normal men are now her's to explore.~ ~Mio 沒想過要當一名巫女,她正真的理想是當一名考古學家, 歷史學家.但因為家境貧困和她天生的魔法天賦，她注定了會在這世界成一名出色的巫女。 但是身為一名巫女也有她的好處，不說她擁有的魔法和魔法道具，她還可以探索過普通人無法探索的古蹟〜 Here are some other places you can find me: Artstation: http://www.artstation.com/artist/Okita Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeosNgOkita Tumblr: http://leos-ng.tumblr.com/ Twitter (for my rants): https://twitter.com/leos_ng Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/leosng Support me at my Patreon too :D https://www.patreon.com/user?u=413656