#my beloved provincial backwater

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Listening to Pax Britannica and for the first time realising that Nova Scotia means New Scotland 🤦🏻

I forget this is not something 99.9% of people in, like, literally grade 1 as a fun bit of trivia about where you live lol.

But yes! The tourism board leans into it and possibly the easiest course I took in high school was a 'Gaelic Studies' local history credit. There's an attempt to revive Scots Gaelic out on Cape Breton that's, like, non-zero amounts of credible, too.

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Oh hey that's where I live!

And y'know I'd never really thought about it, but yes? The whole old fort's basically run as a historical reenactment/museum thing (mostly for tourists and schoolkids). IIRC the people doing the firing are in 18th century uniforms too. I was always given the impression it was a tradition starting back when it was an actual fort and the guns were there in case the French invaded, but I actually have zero idea whether that's true).

...to be clear they fire a blank. No actual canonballs are involved.

Lmao according to this episode's Safety Third, people in Halifax NS fire an actual cannon every day at noon!? And it's pointed at a bank building!? Why. I don't think I've ever seen an actual functional cannon in a city. Even all the cannons at West Point's trophy garden seemed to be non-functional. And honestly I would have expected more unsafe use of historical artillery from the Americans. This seems very dangerous. And also loud. I guess you can't go past commonwealth British Empire weebs for insane behaviour.

[queen-susans-revenge]

Spent a good half an hour today building a lovely fantasy of Harry and Meghan. SCENE ONE: Charles reading headlines like this one and looking up, his face ashen. A grey-suited courtier bows and says "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's unavoidable. We need Meghan. Whatever it takes, we need Meghan back."

SCENE TWO: Evening, a private dinner in one of the palaces. Harry is in a tux, Meghan looks devastating in a dress I will indulge myself in shopping for later. She's definitely wearing over-the-elbow gloves and some glittery bauble of Diana's pinned up in her hair. (Maybe the butterflies? mmm they might be too small, I want a moderate degree of flash here.) William and Catherine are also in black tie but theirs is boring. William's hands are tightly clenched; his face is nearly purple and there's a vein throbbing at his temple.

"We're so glad you're here," Catherine says, and grins determinedly, showing many gritted teeth. "All this unpleasantness has been simply horrible, let's try to forget it. But how was your flight?"

Harry glowers. He's a bit flushed and rumpled and looks as if he'd very much like to throw a punch at his brother, but he's being civilized for Meghan's sake. On his arm she looks like an angel, and she smiles serenely. Cruel, snobbish and bigoted as they've proven themselves to be, the feckless pair standing before her inspires sympathy. This situation is quite painful for them: after all, she's very used to winning, and they're not at all accustomed to losing. Especially not to someone like her.

Poor provincial backwater despots, desperately clinging to their shabby stolen goods. They have no idea how to exist in the modern world, or how to even begin building a truly media-savvy team. She'll have to help them. For her beloved's sake, and for the sake of the countries she adopted when she married him. She knows very well that much of Britain, and indeed the Commonwealth, still adores her as their princess: and she has no intention of failing them. When Meghan visits these countries her reception will be much different.

"You know," she says, "I think one of the mistakes I made when I first joined this family was relying on my Hollywood experiences. But in the process of making something as big as a blockbuster movie, or even a long-running series like the one I worked on--tons of people are involved! The issues can become very personal, and it's not uncommon for there to be heated clashes around, whether it's salary negotiations, scheduling, script issues, I mean whatever, right?"

Catherine nods three times in quick succession, her toothy grin still fixed. The brothers continue to seethe. Meghan sails on blithely: to all appearances she is utterly at ease. She waves a hand to illustrate as she speaks. Her husky voice is charmingly intimate, her tone friendly and casual. "But once it's resolved, you've gotta be able to put it behind you. Because these relationships, they go beyond any one project, right? If you're dealing with a studio it might be your whole career, your life." Her gaze is steady. "So you learn to put things behind you when you need to work with someone again. And so, that part of my Hollywood experience, I want you to know that I'm still bringing it."

She nods in mirror of Catherine, but more slowly, and just once. Then Meghan tilts her head, and her smile turns mischievous. "But I have lots more fun showbiz stories I can tell you. Over dinner maybe, shall we?"

[cospinol]

:3c...  i havent attempted to write up a coherent plot summary for anything in so long im sorry if this is Disjointed!! but i love this story a lot aaa here we go

ritt is a story set a few years before the hero by the water, in a small country called pelagia, located to the north of the izar empire! pelagia is divided into four provinces and ruled by a council of four ‘princes’, each of whom has dominion over one of these provinces. it’s located in a place which was was an ocean several millennia ago, and about thirty percent of its population has the unique ability to communicate with the ‘spirits’ of the creatures which inhabited that prehistoric sea. these individuals are known as ‘dead sea witches’ and most of them are born & live in the province of aby (also known as ‘the abyss’), which has led to numerous conflicts between it and the other provinces who mistrust it on the basis of this ability. the ability isn’t passed on genetically, however, and there are dead sea witches living in the other provinces too, just in much smaller numbers

the mc, ona [who i was dead certain id posted art of before but apparently not what the hell] is a dead sea witch and heir to a noble family with a small backwater domain in aby province. their family’s main claim to fame is that her father is the one who ultimately brought an end to the civil war that almost destroyed the country a few years ago! ill go into a little backstory on that here since it’s the core of the story: the war began as a power grab by amulia, the younger brother of the current aby prince, umita (a well-meaning but unambitious sovereign); he seized the aby throne but balked at actually killing his older sister, instead choosing to keep her imprisoned, which led to the quick rise of a pro-umita movement seeking to put her back on the throne, which divided the province in two. while aby was weakened, koah, the current prince of epi (to the north of aby; the largest province in the country, covering all of its north and most of its east; historically at odds with aby) made a move against amulia in the hopes of gaining some territory. against all odds amulia not only successfully fended this off but hit back hard, defeating & imprisoning koah and gaining control over almost all of epi as well as some territory in the south/western provinces of athy & meso. amulia and the ‘witch council’ who ruled with him went unchallenged for about a year and a half, until another resistance movement appeared more or less out of nowhere and began gaining ground in aby. this group (known as the midnight tide) was led by ona’s father, asca, and over the next couple of years they successfully changed the course of the war, whittling amulia’s territory back down until he was finally cornered and killed (around 5 years after the war started). umita and koah both returned to their thrones and provincial borders were restored to their previous state

anyways the long and the short of it is that the country has been at peace for around 15 years when the story starts, so most of ona’s life. she has never left her hometown or the confines of the quiet, polite life of a minor aristocrat’s daughter in a minor, out-of-the-way city so when her father leaves on one of his routine trips to the province capital to advise king umita, on impulse she sets off a couple of days later to follow him, hoping to see a little of the world. she hasn’t made it past the next town (a small town close to the epi border), though, when she accidentally overhears a plot to kill her father by a couple of strangers in an inn, and then accidentally is discovered listening in. she’s saved at the very last minute by two mysterious travellers, but in the process they manage to run afoul of a group of epi knights who seem to have an interest in protecting the would-be murderers, and... accidentally kill one of the knights. this puts the three new companions in a pretty bad situation so they leg it, and ona ascertains that her quest to catch up to her father has now become a much more urgent one, if she wants to stop the plot to murder him

her fellow travellers turn out to be moei, the runaway youngest daughter of an influential epi noble family, and silva, ex-top disciple of a teacher of swordsmanship who was killed during the war; both are currently operating as wandering swordsmen with nowhere much to be so (although they turn out to be diametrically opposite personalities and Do Not Get Along) they agree to accompany ona, and so we set off!

[what eventually comes to light is a much larger brewing conflict between epi and aby, in which everyone views asca as the linchpin to due to his role in the preceding war. that vision doesn’t end up playing out exactly, as ona’s quest continues to gather momentum and begins to seem very familiar to aby province’s oldest and dearest story, about the very first dead sea witch, who was beloved most of all by the sea & who successfully united four warring states into one united country...]

[FGHJD I JUST REALIZED i went thru that whole summary and missed out on talking about my favourite characters, what the hell, two very key points in ona’s quest end up being seeking out with asca’s old friends / co-leaders of the midnight tide, his tactician zira, who is currently a recluse who wants nothing to do with society ever again, and his best warrior, noro, who currently serves as right hand to the king of epi !! good times]

JHFGS this is a mess i am so sorry, ask me to clarify anything that doesn’t make sense here, etc, ill try to find some art to post of the characters later i know i have some somewhere !!

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Fascinated by whatever internal politiking happened that the pride parade here didn't have a float for cops (even though there was one for fire and another for EMS), but did have both a bunch of sailors in dress uniform and the full military marching band in kilts and shit.

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Idk the exact reason- some s9rt of toxicity in the soil? But very funny to me that the city tore down the derelict/obsolete old high school here and then decided the best use for the land was 'urban prairie'

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New homeless shelter opened like, on time and at the announced capacity. I'm kind of in shock.

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Lost power in the middle of cooking breakfast and am once again left contemplating how incredibly on-its-face idiotic a system 'private utility monopoly with a legally guaranteed rate of profit' is.

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hi I like your blog. I have a question that may be too personal so no hard feelings if you don't answer but could you talk a little bit about more about what you like/don't like about Halifax? im considering Dalhousie for grad school but have never been! and would like to have as much information about where I might spend the next 2 years of my life. thank you!

Oh sure! Though like, it depends on where you're coming from? Everything here is very relative. And also I'm absolutely certain I will forget numemrous vital things, do ask followup questions.

Most important thing is that the housing market is horrifying - the city's population started booming during COVID and the zoning and construction is only really starting to catch up now. Especially within walking distance of Dal getting a place to live at anything approaching affordable is going to be vicious. (This has unsurprisingly coincided with a large uptick in homelessness. Unremarkable to walk by a tent in a corner of some public park now).

Relatedly, the bus system is like - okay I'm not sure it's notably bad for a mid-sized-ish north american city, but it's damn sure not any better. You can get by bussing around on the peninsula, anywhere beyond 20 minute drives turn into 40-60 minute rides.

You will not have a family doctor, figure out the nearest walk-in clinic you can use for anything non-emergency.

The city's economy runs on some combination of students, tourists, sailors and soldiers. There are as many bars as you might expect (had the most per capita in the country for a while, don't know if we still do). Some of them are actually very good!

Relatedly, weed and liquor are both only legally sold by the crown corporation monopoly and a few weird specialty places.

None of them are massive, but there is a very nice amount of parkland and green space scattered throughout the city. The public (botanical) gardens are really beautiful in the spring-summer, and most are well-maintained (they just renovated and expanded the outdoor pool on the city Commons last year, even).

The waterfront has been thoroughly gentrified for the cruise ships over the course of my lifetime, but it's all still open to the public and grabbing one of the armchairs or hammocks to read in during the summer is lovely.

Provincially the government is the most thoroughly domesticated/red tory party in the country (they fairly literally ran to the left of the liberals). Full of corrupt backslapping, constantly getting into pissing matches with the municipal government, will probably govern for the next decade.

For reasons that I assume are downstream of all the students and having the closest thing to a regional theater scene east of Quebec, the whole city is IME very queer-friendly. For reasons I absolutely not understand, pride is in August here.

The public library system is basically the only part of the municipal government I think anyone involved should be unequivocally proud of, but it is great.

I don't really know the crime stats offhand but like, I left my apartment door unlocked probably 7 times in 10 through all of undergrad and it never bit me in the ass?

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I feel like I missed exactly when the changeover happened, but at some point the faux-British pub restaurants around here started serving (deeply mediocre) vindaloo and butter chicken along with the steak&kidney pie and bangers&mash.

Feel like you can (and people probably have) write many, many sociology papers on this.

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bunch of local businesses do a novelty burger week promotion so! This obscenity will be minimum three meals, but IS delicious.

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Hipstery artifical doughnut place a few blocks from my apartment is ALSO participating in novelty burger week. I was dragged there for lunch.

I can feel my arteries clogging. Worth it.

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Is it just an unlucky coincidence around here or is it some iron law of municipal politics that any group called 'friends of [neighborhood]' will be the most noxious and malevolent people you ever meet?

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Shoutout to my provincial government for being bullied into actually doing something, I guess. Unit number is comically small but 'build public housing' was entirely out of the overton window like three months ago so y'know. Progress.

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Incredibly grating that the local press is reporting the increase in average property taxes as an increase in rates and giving all the free airtime they want to like property owner associations rabble rousing about it, when literally more than 100% of the increase is just because property values have shot up some ungodly percent over the last year.

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Nothing to lower your opinion of those you share a city with like reading the reporting on a community meeting about a new homeless shelter.