#pia's oversharing

[pia-writes-things]

Here is my entry for the @creatingblackcharacters' Black History Month Challenge.

I wanted to write about Jen from Agatha All Along for a long time now, because I love her to pieces and she deserves the world <3, so this was the perfect opportunity to show her all the love !

For this piece, I decided to focus on two things : her skills at potions, and her joy doing it. We've only seen her making potions under life or death threats from the Road in the series, and I wanted to explore a bit what it meant for her to practice her craft just chilling and enjoying herself. I also wanted to highlight how witchcraft is transmitted through friends and family, how much of a community effort it is, so I decided to explore her teaching side as well, with Billy, and to have her reflect on who taught her and how it shows in her practice. Also, music is important in the show, and to me, so I wanted to incorporate what it would look like if music was an integral part of her craft, especially because working AND singing at the same time is the most joyful thing in life imo. Finally, because I'm me and I always end up writing about found-family somehow, I tried to also incorporate that with her musings about the coven.

With this piece, I also want to say to my Black followers that you deserve this joy and this sense of community. You deserve to feel like your skills are a valuable part of our world, that they are valued and worthy to be transmitted, and that you deserve to be loved and love ❤️ Your joy, your skills and who you are should always be celebrated and I hope I succeeded in conveying that through Jen 😊

Before I post the piece (under a read more because it's 1400 words ^^), I tag @hemerae-ramblings, @saecookie, @sapphictea, @blatterpussbunnyfromhell, @bwayfan25 and @everybodyknows-everybodydies and anyone else who'd like to participate !

(rules here and guidelines here)

Jen side-eyes Teen – sorry, Billy – and catches him quickly looking back toward the history homework laid out on the living-room table. He asked her to help him with it, but she’s busy. She shakes her hand to get rid of the excess water, making her bracelets ring quietly.

With her dried hand, she reaches for sage on the shelf and tears a leaf that she drops in the simmering pot in front of her. The liquid bubbles and sprays a little, tiny droplets flying up and staining the countertop. Luckily for her, she wears her trusty apron, and it saves her white blouse. The sound makes Teen – Billy – look up again, and he observes her for a few seconds before he notices she’s looking at him. He darts down again.

She sighs, a bit amused. He’s so curious and yet so frightened. She knows he still feels bad about the whole Road thing. To be honest, things are still a bit awkward between them, and she’s not sure they will ever not be. He did kill (inadvertently) three of his coven members. Her friends. And he still hangs out with Agatha. It’s a lot.

She starts stirring the pot, making sure to infuse it with her magic regularly. He’s cute, though, she muses. She knows he’s just a lost kid, like she could very well have been, had her parents been less fortunate. Lots of girls from her coven, or just girl like her, had found themselves orphan, back in the day. Not only because they were witches, though it certainly didn’t help.

But, anyway, she knows Te – Billy needs guidance, and she can provide just that. Like her grandma did for her, she thinks, her mind lost in the bubbles of the potion. For no reason, she thinks of Lilia, too. They might not have known each other for long, but she guided her as well. Like her mother, like her aunt, like her cousin. She owes so much to so many women, and Billy needs that kind of advice, kindness and patience. Especially with his powers.

Also, she’d be damned to let Agatha be his sole mentor. He needs more than a sociopath to help him on the road (no pun intended) to proper witchcraft.

“Are you done?” she asks.

“Uh?” His perplexed face would almost be endearing if it wasn’t also annoying. She knows he’s done. He hasn’t been focused on his practice papers for half an hour – at least.

“Your homework,” she repeats, “Are you done?”

“Oh,” he exhales, trying to sound surprised and failing. “Yeah, I’m done!”

“Good, come over here,” she motions, her tone no nonsense.

He scrambles to get next to her so fast she worries he might fall. He’s all dangly limbs and no coordination, like any teenager his age. She’s surprised he didn’t injure himself more on the Road, to be honest.

“What are you doing?” he asks, eager. His whole body is angled towards the pot, his elbow brushing hers as she keeps stirring.

“A potion,” she can’t help deadpanning.

He huffs and she smirks.

“To be more specific, this is a calming potion, to soothes nerves and anxiety. I thought you might need it,” she adds.

He looks sideways at her, and she smiles a little before she adds teasingly: “I’d rather not have you control people’s mind again when you lose control of your emotions. It wasn’t fun.”

He laughs a little. Her smile grows bigger. They’re making progress! A few weeks ago, he would have tried to apologise again.

The potion is also making progress: she can see the colour shifting slowly from water-transparent to a calming pastel blue. She keeps infusing it with magic as Billy watches intently.

Silence falls on them and she starts tapping a repetitive rhythm on the counter with her nails. It’s something her grandma always used to do to teach her the craft when she was little. Jen learned a lot of potion recipes this way, by singing along to whatever absent-minded tune the older woman was creating. It’s something her entire coven used to do, now that she thinks of it.

Billy opens his mouth, interrupting her.

“How do you do it?” She raises her brow, encouraging him to be more specific. “What are the steps to the potion?” he asks again.

She nods. “Some parts I can’t tell you. They're reserved to root-worker, and women. Others, I can explain.”

She starts to play with her nails again, soon humming a lively tune.

“Counterclockwise you must stir,” she sings, handing him the ladle, “To ward away the monster.”

He smiles, his tongue sticking out as he focuses.

“Sing with me,” she urges.

“Counterclockwise you must stir, to ward away the monster.”

“Sage you must add, so that never again you be sad.”

“Sage you mast add, so that never again you be sad.”

She adds her other hand to liven up the rhythm, thinking about Alice playing and singing her heart out on the piano. She tears up, but she smiles too.

“Water you throw in, and let the joy begin!”

Billy is fully laughing by this point, his stirring more hectic. “Water you throw in, and let the joy begin!” he exclaims.

“Do not forget the magic, lest your potion be toxic,” she sings along.

This time, Billy doesn’t repeat and blurts out a panicked “What?”, the ladle stopping dead in the middle of the pot

She chuckles.

“Don’t worry, I’m doing it. Can’t you see the pink? Keep stirring,” she orders. “I’m not feeding you poison; I’m feeding you potion,” she adds, quite proud of her wordplay.

He rolls his eyes but obediently starts stirring again. “Do you always sing when making potions?”

“Not always, but it helps to remember the steps.”

“Do you still need it?”

She scoffs and adds a little bit more sage to the pot as the potion is starting to turn more green than blue. “Of course not. It’s for you. Someone needs to teach you how to heal yourself.”

His eyes travel briefly towards his stomach and then he focuses back on the potion. It’s turning completely blue now. She takes one of her powder pouch and hands it to him.

“You can stop stirring,” she explains. “Now, this powder I can’t tell you about, so don’t ask. Just add a pinch of it, and then, blast you full power to make it boil. It must boil with magic, not naturally, it’s very important.”

His eyes are a bit scared when he looks at her.

“You can do it, Billy.”

He nods, takes a pinch of powder, throws it in and inhale. Then, the pot explodes, and they find themselves soaked in potion.

Billy is frozen in place. Jen just laughs harder than she’s laughed in a long time.

“Ok, note for future lessons: not your full power,” she wheezes. She swipes the potion off her face and thanks the Universe again that she is wearing an apron.

“I’m sorry, Jen.”

“It’s alright. You must make mistakes to learn. That’s what my mother always used to say.”

He smiles wetly. Quite literally. She sighs.

“I think that’s enough for today, don’t you?” He nods. “Go change and go home. We’ll take this up another day.”

She smiles as he climbs the stairs towards the bathroom, his socks leaving wet prints on the carpet.

“He’s really cute, even if he’s a disaster, isn’t he?”

Jen jumps as Lilia appears next to her. She puts a hand on her heart to try and calm it down. She may be drenched in it, but the potion apparently doesn’t work for ghost-induced jump scares.

“Lilia!” she cries indignantly, “How many times?”

“What’s the fun in being a ghost if I can’t haunt you, baby doll?” Lilia laughs as she hovers halfway through the counter.

Jen scrunches up her nose. “I’m not a doll.”

“No, you aren’t. But you’re a baby,” Lilia smirks.

“Hey,” Jen exclaims, regretting the fact she can’t gently slap her friend on the arm, “I’m almost 150.”

“I’m 450, and dead,” the older witch deadpans. “My point stands.”

Jen feigns offense, raised brows and open mouth, but she can’t help the smile that blooms on her lips. It’s not the same, Lilia being a ghost, but she’s so grateful to have her in her life still.

“Do you want to keep me company while I fix his mess and actually finish the potion?” she asks.

“Sure. It’s not like I’m in a rush or something.”

And so, the divination witch and potion witch spend the next few hours happily chatting, reminiscing and singing. At some point, Alice joins them. Rock rhythms mix with traditional root-workers melodies and Sicilian arpeggios. It’s warm and it’s safe and it’s everything Jen has ever wanted in a coven.

[not-poignant]

4 updates a month is still a lot so please do what's best for you and your health Pia!

Thank you anon!

Right now I'm doing a good attempt at being as melodramatically over it as Howl is lmao. (I am still actually really enjoying the writing, I'm just noticing there's starting to be a lot of spillover negative effects from working quite hard.)

(Put the rest under a cut because I realised I overshare, as always, lmao).

I think it's also just that like... there's a lot going on in my life right now. Up until two weeks ago when I reshuffled a bunch of medical stuff, I was seeing two therapists, a dietitian, a psychiatrist, my GP for a lot of medical stuff, a hepatologist for some of that medical stuff (my liver is fine actually but also not really), and a physiotherapy so I could basically learn how to walk without agony again after developing Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome.

I've had to stop seeing some of those people because like, money and also because I'm just oof, ready for a break. Doing physiotherapy workouts that increase every two days in intensity for months has wreaked some havoc on my chronic fatigue and Fibromyalgia, even if it has given me back some knee stability (yay!!!). And business stuff behind the scenes re: figuring out how to market an oracle deck (I'm very bad at it), and what to do with my writing to see if I can ever ever turn it into a liveable income (idk maybe? I'm bad at it too, and I'm a long way off still), plus increased costs of living (we're all dealing with this though) and stuff is just...

WELL. You didn't sign up for a recap of my life anon! But if you got this far have some good stuff as well:

My ADHD meds have actually been working pretty well! It's really really great to see progress re: my knee pain and injury and instability because for a while there we were pretty sure I had hit 'might need a wheelchair for the foreseeable future' and while that might happen in the future, it's definitely not going to happen now. Also my physiotherapist is great? (Physical therapist for people not in Australia).

And it's spring here, and everything is flowering in my garden and it looks so so nice. Here's some photos from my Instagram (yes, folks are welcome to follow if they want). I got a little new stationery organiser today which makes my pen collector soul so delighted. And I get to go to bed soon, and I get so excited when it's bed time. I LOVE SLEEP. Lol.

Sending y'all love if you read all of this. Long story short, I am pulling back and taking a bit of a writing break in October - still writing, just less! Partly because burnout, and partly because emotional wellbeing, and partly because next week is NaNoWriMo and I hope y'all are ready for me to absolutely smash it out re: writing in November :D I'll come back guns blazing.

[potential-fate]

MORE QUESTIONS! This time I'm gonna bug you about Kaeileen. 2, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, and 36!

oooho no one has asked about Kaeileen!~

2. 'mens' deodorant. no cologne or perfume though. They just prefer the scents available marketed to men over the floral scents for women's deodorant, though they'd probably be fine with the non-sceneted ones or the plainer ones like 'fresh cotton' or whatnot.

7. Kaeileen really wants people to like them. They wouldn't say it's a fear, but they wouldn't want to be alone or have to be the unpopular kid that they were when they were little again.

8. fashion magazines and seasons of Gossip Girl.

11. not really, but they quite like the bubbler.

13. Kaeileen isn't a fan of poetry, no.

14. Hmm, not really, if anything Kaeileen tends to overshare, but they also tend to not really have anything to talk about that's not superficial. so a little of both?

17. Probably pretty easily. Mainly due to not having a secure sense of what their morals are to begin with.

18. Kaeileen has made a lot of enemies. Mostly from their own actions, rather than the other person's. They're naturally inclined to start fights with people.

19. Actually becoming friends with Kaeileen would be pretty tough. They have a lot of superficial relationships though. so being 'friends' with them is easy, but not being good friends.

21. Friends are easily more important to them than family, minus possibly Pia, but that's mostly because she counts as both to Kaeileen at this point.

36. They haven't killed anyone. They probably wouldn't, at least not on purpose. but not out of a sense of morality, but that it would be a lot of work to cover up/etc. they're too lazy to deal with that. But being an accomplice to murder might be something that would happen to them, since they'd be worried about their friend not liking them or ditching them about it otherwise.

Questions here

[jorzuela]

Chants: answer #2 answer #2

Well i love mpregs but i just posted a short one. I would love to give a try to an actual chaptered fic about it and see how it goes. The other 2 things that come to mind are a got au and an egyptian one but as you know they are coming already.

But here's the tea: back in the day i used to be into neko fics and i even wrote one that i never posted and then my computer died so the world was spared of that. Pia read it and she was like

I don't know, there's not much i keep myself from doing if i want to. The egyptian au probs because i didn't know if i could do it justice but i know i won't post it until it is perfect.

That was a long answer but you know me, always oversharing.

[pia-writes-things]

The love was there - a WOT tribute

So... I did a thing.

I needed to externalise all my feelings after 305 and this is what came out of it. Hope you'll like it !

[pia-writes-things]

Hello le Tumblr français !

Je fais des recherches pour le boulot et j'aurais besoin de vos recommandations : je cherche des personnes à interviewer pour un projet, qui ne soit pas cishétéro blanches, neurotypiques ou valides, militant.es et engagée sur les sujets que je met juste en dessous. L'idée serait que ce soit des personnes concernées par le sujet (qui parlent de leurs propres expériences) ou en tout cas qu'elles puissent avoir un discours pertinent, même si c'est pas leur sujet principal d'intervention dans la vie.

J'aurais donc besoin de personnes pour parler de :

Procréation

Genre

Consentement et intimité

Violences sexistes et sexuelles et inceste

Relation affective

Éducation féministe

Voilà, si jamais vous avez des reco, je suis preneuse ! Merci beaucoup 🙏

[pia-writes-things]

That new clip of Siuraine broke me I swear. I was supposed to work on my finals and I just cannot think about anything else

[pia-writes-things]

I finally finished my first draft of the project I started during nanowrimo!!

[pia-writes-things]

Recommandation – Nyongo : la face cachée de Mayotte, Ayat Hamidoune, Éditions Orphie, 2024

Dernièrement, j'ai eu l'occasion de lire le roman d'Ayat Hamidoune, une jeune mahoraise de 18 ans, et je le recommande à tout le monde !!

Le roman est court, une centaine de page, mais son titre résume bien sa puissance : il signifie "amer". À travers l’histoire de trois jeunes mahorais·es, Ayat Hamidoune décortique de son point de vue de jeune adulte la délinquance juvénile, les conflits générationnels, la place de l’islam, les violences envers les femmes et l’hypocrisie générale dont elle est témoin. C'est un roman dur : inspiré de faits réels, notamment la tentative d’agression sexuelle dont l’autrice a été victime à 14 ans, il témoigne d’une véritable volonté d’alerte sur la situation à Mayotte. N'hésitez pas à chercher une liste de TW avant (et je peux en fournir une si besoin).

Ce roman, c'est aussi une belle aventure collective éditoriale : Ayat Hamidoune a été soutenue par sa professeure de français qui lui a fourni un ordinateur pour pouvoir écrire son livre, et la promotion du roman a été financée grâce à une cagnotte en ligne lancée par l’association de protection de l’enfance Mon P'tit Loup.

Bref, c'est un roman qui impressionne tant par ses sujets, la maturité avec lequel ils sont abordés et la jeunesse de son autrice ! Un livre nécessaire et que tout le monde devrait lire tant le récit qu'il offre est rare !

Nyongo : la face cachée de Mayotte, Ayat Hamidoune, Éditions Orphie, 2024

[pia-writes-things]

OK, I can't find anything by myself so I'm opening this up to you all.

For my thesis, I'm looking for articles or books, ideally seminal or the basis of a school of thought, that deal with the reception of art by different audiences. I'm looking for something rather sociological, even anthropological, that examines how different types of art, aesthetics, movements, etc. are received, interpreted and negotiated by different audiences according to their characteristics (age, class, race, gender, place of residence, level of cultural, economic and educational capital, etc.). Basically, the reception theories of the Cultural Studies but applied specifically to art. So, idk, maybe art sociology? I tried to look that up but it's mostly on the artists and I need it on the public

If anyone knows of something, please let me know, I'm desperate lol (it can be in English, French or Spanish)

Thank you very much !!

[pia-writes-things]

We have reached episode 1.06 in my WOT rewatch 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Pleased to report it still gets me all giddy even for the 4th or 5th time (i don't remember)

[pia-writes-things]

Just finished rewatching The Good Place again and I'm crying like a baby omg

This series just hits something deep in my soul that I will never fully understand but I am SO GRATEFUL it exists <3

[pia-writes-things]

I went into publishing to escape maths, can someone explain to me why I've been fighting with Excel sheets that are not mathing since yesterday???

[pia-writes-things]

I've got 2 or 3 episodes left of season 1 of The Diplomat, I think, and so far that's where I'm at:

Hal is getting on my nerves but at the same time his relationship with Kate is driving me crazy! They're both super sweet, super toxic, super in love and they hate each other, I can't stand them and I love them to bits!

Eidra and Stuart are the best, they're really cute, they make me die laughing, they're really not discreet and it's hilarious, I love them too

Cecilia is iconic, I want more of her in the show

Kate is my wife, I want to marry her, she's the queen she thinks she is, she could do anything and I'd still make excuses for her, I support her wrongs

The blossoming friendships between Kate, Eidra, Cecilia, Billie and in general the relationships between the women in this series are just incredible, I want that all the time in all my series, friendship is life really.

I really like the diplomacy and geopolitics, the politicians are shit like in real life, and I find the series quite complex and sometimes not very clear about its politics, but that makes it interesting.

In short, I like it lol

[pia-writes-things]

I wrote a thing. It's Siuaraine angst ^^ Enjoy !

Summary :

Basically, what could have happened had Siuan gone after Moiraine in That Scene™ in episode 301.

Moiraine ignores her, doesn’t even look above her shoulder. She walks faster.

“Moiraine, please,” Siuan says, her voice strangled.

Her love just shakes her head. Siuan takes her wrist in her hand and forces her to a stop. They’re getting soaked but she doesn’t care.

“Siuan, don’t,” Moiraine finally says, her voice cold and harsh. Hurt.

[pia-writes-things]

Finally saw the sneak peek (11 minutes feels more than a peek but hey, I'm not complaining) for WOT season 3 and I only have one thing to say :

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I'M SO EXCITED THIS WAS EPIC I'M GONNA SCREAM AND CRY THIS SEASON LOOKS SO GOOD OMG