#so far it seems like APA formatting is the thing she most wants us to learn

[gillianthecat]

Unfortunately. I have Opinions about how teachers teach. I've never really been a teacher myself but I still think You're Doing it Wrong.

[idiopath-fic-smile]

Oh my goddd I was scrolling back through your blog and the 1950s lesbian exr is a thing that just could not conceivably be any further up my alley (I realise what this sounds like and I apologise), so I was wondering if we could get another little snippet? No pressure ofc. PS I love your writing and even if we never get any more of tscosi it's still probably my favourite podcast of all time

Hi!

Thank you so much. There will definitely be more Starship Iris eventually, but I really appreciate that.

Re: the fic, I was simultaneously trying to write a historically accurate-ish look at 1950′s American lesbian identity and activism, and give it a bit of a noir feel, which in theory I think you could do because holy shit these women were risking so much, and they had to basically be spies anyway because the FBI was legit trying to keep tabs on them and their meetings. I don’t really know if I’m the person to do it, though; this feels pretty damn far out of my lane, to be honest.

I really wish there was more historical fiction about this cause in this period; you can find some fascinating shit just doing a cursory wikipedia crawl. Like, the first lesbian periodical was created in 1947 by a 25-year-old who was working as a receptionist at RKO Studios; her boss was like ‘just look busy so people think I’m a big deal’ and so she was secretly using company equipment to type and format a zine about lesbianism, like 25 years before the APA stopped calling homosexuality a mental illness.

Anyway, I only wrote about three pages; I stopped when I realized how long it would need to be, and how much work would be involved, and also frankly it’s a lot easier to situate Enjolras in a fic about queer activism post-Stonewall, because the D.O.B.-era organizing tended to be pretty assimilationist. Like, I think their work was important and has been unfairly neglected, but I still think Enjolras in any era would chafe at their gradualism. 

Enjolras isn’t even mentioned by name in this, but uh I think you’ll be able to find her. 

(Head’s up: this is the very opening of the story, it’s from Grantaire’s POV, and she has not begun to work through her issues yet, so quick content warning for period-typical internalized homophobia and self-loathing, as well as period-typical sexism. Also, historical note: from what I can tell, “lesbian” had negative connotations even within the community at the time.)

“Grantaire, are you alright?” said Murray. He didn’t try that hard to hide his laughter. “You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” she said, too quickly.

“You’ll need to set aside your small-town attitudes if you want to succeed in the big city,” Chester added. “There’s all sorts here, as you can see.”

Grantaire nodded. There was nothing more dangerous than someone desperate to prove they were more Bohemian than you, she thought. She wondered if they were only doing this because she had corrected Chester about Rothko. Maybe she should’ve kept her mouth shut. She could have just let him be wrong and avoided the whole adventure, or prank, or byzantine office hazing ritual–whatever had inspired them to take her here, of all places.

The Musain. Run by the mob, of course, but that wasn’t what made the place so notorious. There wasn’t exactly a neon sign screaming gay bar! But even if Grantaire was as naive as Chester and Murray seemed to assume, she probably could’ve put the clues together herself from the clientele, men mingling with men and women mingling with women. 

How much looking was too much looking? It all felt like too much. She tried focusing on the grimy wall of bottles behind the bar, except one of the bartenders had hung a poster of a pin-up girl back there, naked but for a strategically-placed ukulele, grinning a slick, lipsticky grin. There was no safe real estate to rest your eyes on. Every inch was dangerous, an admission of something.

“I’ll be right back,” she croaked. “Ladies’ room.”

“If you can tell which one it is,” laughed–Chester? Murray?–who even cared, she thought, ducking into the crowd.

The water did not help like she’d hoped. Grantaire switched off the tap and wiped at her face, badly wanting a cigarette. She wondered how much longer she could hide in here before it got suspicious. Two or three minutes, she figured, but when she stepped back into the bar she’d need to be perfectly composed.

Then again, neither of her new colleagues seemed too perceptive. Case in point: this present stunt, designed to unnerve her in an entirely different direction. Even now, she could at least detect a certain sick humor about the whole affair. She was still half-smirking when a woman walked in. Grantaire looked away on instinct, but foolishly, right into the mirror, to be pinned instead by the stranger’s reflection. There was just no catching a break tonight.

Grantaire had seen the stranger already from the other side of the bar, would have noticed her from a hundred paces. She was tall and athletic-looking, dressed like a man in a button-down shirt and trousers. Normally a girl of that stature slouched, pulled in her shoulders as if apologizing for taking up the space, but every line of this woman’s body was utterly assured, self-possessed. Her hair was cropped short, and there was a stark beauty in her strong brows and sharp cheekbones, feminine without a trace of softness.

Her eyes slid to Grantaire and away again: registered and dismissed in a single motion.

Grantaire dried her hands—slowly, because she still did not really want to go back. Anything was preferable, maybe including this.

In a way, it was almost a relief to see that nothing had changed. Seasons came and went but Grantaire was still Grantaire: a bundle of too-tight nerves and awkward elbows, scratchy throat, furtive gaze bouncing everywhere it shouldn’t. Still nursing a fascination with the most dangerous-looking female in the area. A puppy dog panting after a wolf.

Grantaire snorted, echoing in the cramped space. The woman looked back at her.

“Sorry,” Grantaire mumbled.

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Your friends seem to be having a good time,” she said. Her voice was cold and dry as the Arctic Desert. Searing sun, powdery snow.

Chester and Murray weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination. They were barely co-workers; Grantaire had only been at the magazine for five days, had only arrived in the city three days before that, had been hired sight unseen by the eccentric editor-in-chief on the strength of a portfolio sent by mail and a first name that could pass as a man’s. It was even odds that once the bossman returned from his honeymoon and discovered his brand-new cartoonist was a she, Grantaire would be right out the door again, no chance to slip a single drawing into the lineup. As it was, her presence at the office had the air of a lingering typo.

Best-case scenario, her new employer would turn out to be one of those awful tyrants who refused to acknowledge any degree of fallibility, and he’d keep her on out of sheer hardheadedness. Perhaps after a year or two, she’d fade from a novelty to a background detail, and she’d finally grow up enough to stop trying to prove herself when it mattered the least.

None of it was worth explaining.

“They’re harmless,” said Grantaire instead. “That new intellectual type. They like modern art and smoking marijuana and pretending to understand poetry. They’re not here to gawk, not really.” She could not make herself shut her mouth. It was like having a fit. “They only brought me by to try to get a rise out of the girl from Skokie,” she was saying. “They’ve got nothing against your kind.”

“My kind,” the woman repeated, and Grantaire gave a helpless inward flinch. Was it rude to imply someone was a homosexual simply because she was wearing trousers at a gay bar? It didn’t look like a costume; she wore it with too much grace. “Don’t you mean ‘our kind’?” the woman said.

Grantaire froze, still clutching a wad of paper towel. She hadn’t expected to feel caught out. She had almost hoped for it, maybe, some slight terrified swoop of the stomach, but one foot inside the Musain, one glance at the flesh-and-blood patrons flirting under threat of police raid, had put it to rest.

(“Welcome to city life,” Chester had said, with a chuckle. “Meet your new neighbors!”)

Grantaire could only stand there, in the drab skirt and blouse she had picked specifically to blend in at the office, and measure the distance in miles, in light years.

She threw the paper towel in the trash, made herself meet the woman’s eyes. Grantaire was a head shorter, but somehow it was her spine that craned down, her shoulder blades that pulled together, her posture that begged forgiveness for the sheer fact of her blood and muscle and skin.

“I’m nothing like you,” said Grantaire.

“Really?” came the reply, unimpressed. “Because I could’ve sworn I saw you in here last week. Minus your friends.”

It had to be a bluff, thought Grantaire. Without two rowdy men at her back to make the whole thing a joke, she had barely managed to step in before she’d hightailed it back out.

It had to be a bluff, unless it wasn’t.

First Chester and Murray, and now this. Grantaire had just about had it with people trying to shock her by telling her things she already knew. Sex perverts exist, Grantaire, on one hand. You’re one of them, Grantaire, on the other.

At some point, a girl reached her limit.

“Oh,” said Grantaire, “I’m a lesbian, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

The woman blinked at her, not expecting—what? The directness? The word? The slightest illusion of a backbone?

Grantaire bared her teeth in a grin: another illusion. Nothing but well-honed reflex at this point; every bone in her body knew how to lie.

“And that’s the beginning and end of what we have in common,” Grantaire said. It had been a long day; she gave herself the petty satisfaction of slamming the door on her way out.

“Feeling better?” Chester asked, all mock-sympathy, when she returned. “Maybe a ginger-ale to settle your stomach?” It had the shape of an offer but the taste of a dare: can you stay long enough to drink it.

“Throw in some whiskey and you’ve got yourself a deal,” she said. Murray laughed. Her head hurt.

“Don’t look now, but there’s a woman, if you can call it that, watching us,” said Murray in a low, amused voice. “Think she’s got her eye on you, Grantaire.”

For once in her life, she wouldn’t rise to take the bait. “You’re hilarious,” said Grantaire without looking up. “A regular Bob Hope.”

“They still laughing at Bob Hope out in Skokie?” Chester said.

“It’s Illinois,” she snapped, “not the Mesozoic Era.”

“Mesozoic,” said Murray, as though he’d never heard anything so ridiculous. “Big word for a little lady.”

Mesozoic. Eight letters. But it didn’t matter how you contorted yourself; somebody would always find a way to be sore at you for being too much of one thing or another.

Grantaire hunched down on the stool, away from the sweep of those imagined eyes, and forced herself to smile.

[essaytransitionwords384]

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[annabethwisegirl-chase]

250 Headcanons (Part 4)

I bet you thought you’d seen the last of these.  Headcanons #151-200.  These cover from Annabeth’s time in college, to her death, as well as a little extra.  You’ll see what I mean if you make it to the end of this.  

151. One of the general education requirements at the university in New Rome has to deal with an Ancient Roman history course, and how they’ve evolved over time, how things have changed and stayed the same, and how the past repeats itself, etc.  Being the good Greek demigod that she is, Annabeth spends most of the class creating edited versions of notes that contradict half of what the professor’s saying.  The myths that were so obviously stolen from the Greek tradition get the most heavy handed treatment, with Annabeth opting to continue telling it the way she knows.  After all, it’s based on her culture, so it has to be more accurate than whatever the Romans turned it into.  Since most of the tests in the class are short and long essay response questions, Annabeth ends up not doing too well in that course because of the fact she refuses to change her perspective on Rome and its history.  Her final paper in the class has about half a page about Roman history/mythology, comparing it to its Greek counterparts, before she spends the rest of it detailing where the narrative is completely wrong, citing sources like “my mother, the goddess, Athena,” and “Chiron, trainer of heroes,” and “former Praetor Jason Grace, who met this guy and said he was a dick.”  The last one, she found, was really hard to cite in APA format.

152.  Although Annabeth does have friends in New Rome (Reyna, Frank, Hazel, and the occasional appearance by Jason), she never feels quite right there.  She knows that most of the others living there don’t think twice about having her around, but there’s still an underlying prejudice with many of the younger demigods still at Camp Jupiter.  It’s enough to make her want to move back to New York after one year.  But, the credits at New Rome don’t really transfer to any other university, and Annabeth can’t stand the idea of feeling like she wasted her time there.  So, she agrees to stick it out for the next three and reevaluate at the end of it where they want to live.

153.  She spends those next three years drawing up plans for New Athens in her spare time and working with Chiron via IM on how to make it a reality.  At first the centaur seemed hesitant, because camp was never intended to become a permanent home.  But, with demigods living longer and Camp Jupiter having such a well working structure, Chiron knows he really has no choice but to give in.  Through some “anonymous funding” provided by the Olympian gods, the camp is able to buy more land and expand its borders for the creation of a new town.  The Athena Parthenos is moved to where the gates of the new city will be, and Annabeth almost hates that she’s not there to see its symbolic new placement.  Almost.

154.  At the college in New Rome, passwords have to be changed every 180 days.  It’s a supid rule, and Annabeth has to get IT to reset her account for her once because she forgets and lets it expire.  But, each year, she sets up her passwords based around a “theme” in the hopes they’ll be easier to remember.  (Although so many people are amazed at the things Annabeth can remember, passwords just don’t seem to be among them).  Her first year is pretty simple, just naming her friends and adding a number at the end of it.  The next few years have themes including favorite Disney characters, famous architects, and superheroes.

155.  Annabeth has never liked the taste of coffee. Ways to keep her going after pulling all-nighters usually include a lot of exercise and Dr. Pepper.  She also has very specific stages that she goes through whenever she hasn’t slept that are, in order: drunk sounding Annabeth, giggly Annabeth, sarcastic/sassy Annabeth, flat out mean Annabeth, and finally dead girl walking Annabeth.

156.  The first place she starts to design for New Athens is the home she wants to live in with Percy.  It’s completed in bits in pieces, because she keeps trying to hide it from him, which is definitely a task that is easier said than done.  He keeps trying to sneak up behind her or steal her blueprints away, just to see what is taking her away from him that he knows isn’t school work.  Somehow though, she manages to keep it tucked safely away, in a tube with a pen mark down the side that she stashes with her old Olympus sketches.

157.  She will drop anything and everything to have her head and/or neck rubbed. 

158.  Annabeth also is just a really good artist in general.  Like, she’s great at proportions and angles from her years of trying to train as an architect.  But, it transfers over into other subject matter as well.  Her notebooks are filled with doodles in the corners that look way more detailed than something absentmindedly drawn during lectures.  

159.  Since her mom is also the goddess of crafts, Annabeth tries to take up knitting over a winter break, watching Youtube tutorial videos to try and get good at it.  Although she can make a pretty wicked scarf, her hats kind of look deformed.  But, that doesn’t stop her from making them for nearly everyone that she comes in contact with.  It’s therapeutic, to be able to work with her hands and continue to create things instead of feeling like she’s only tearing them down.  And making hats and scarves take so much less time than watching a building rise from the ground up.  So it definitely provides the more immediate satisfaction while she’s waiting for her more major projects to come to fruition.

160.  Annabeth cannot cook to save her life.  She made it a point to learn how to make cupcakes, but that’s as far as her ability in the kitchen goes.  Everything else ends up burnt or not completely done.  Then, when Annabeth tries to cook it/bake it longer, then it just ends up burning.

161.  Ham, pineapple and extra black olives is her pizza of choice.  However, due to the fact she seems to be the only one on the side of pro-pineapple, and her boyfriend’s insistence that the pineapple taints the pizza entirely, she just settles for olives on her half of the pizza. 

162.  Literally always cold.  It doesn’t matter that they spend the majority of the year in California, Annabeth always has some sort of jacket or sweater on her.  She walks around her apartment with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and sleeps with her socks on because she swears that it keeps her warmer.

163.  Annabeth is that person who always dresses up for class.  Well, not necessarily dresses up, but is careful to make sure she looks professional at all times.  Literally the second she gets home though, it’s goodbye pants and hello oversized sweatshirt.  If there are going to be any plans to go out to eat dinner, or hang out in the city, those have to be made between classes or immediately after she walks through the door.  Because the second she changes out of her clothes, that’s it for the day.

164.  The first year that Percy and Annabeth live together brings back a lot of the bickering from their younger days.  And sometimes, that bickering can spiral out of control and have them in full on fights.  The argument that crops up the most definitely has to do with household chores.  Annabeth is used to having a certain level of cleanliness.  It helps her to stay focused it there’s not a huge mess everywhere.  Percy, on the other hand, does not seem to be quite as phased by it.  Fed up, she decides to try and institute a chore wheel, but it ends up causing more problems and neither of them pay much attention to it.  But, they never think to take it down off its place on the fridge.  So, it stays there pretty much the entire time they live in that apartment.

165.  She owns three calendars.  One is a little planner that she keeps in her backpack, one is hanging up on the wall by her desk, and one is huge and actually sits on her desk.  Although the same information is written in pretty much all three, the constant reminders and hope of seeing it makes it more likely that Annabeth will complete a task that’s set out for her.  Everything is also color coded.  School assignment due dates and tests are in red, family events are in blue, social events are in green, appointments are in purple, demigod related things are in orange, and anything else that might pop up is in pink.

166.  Annabeth gets a job her second year of living in New Rome working at a cafe.  She has to be up way too early for her liking, but she always has been an early riser so it’s not too hard to make the adjustment.  Besides, it means that she’s done with her shift by the time her classes start, giving her ample time in the evenings to work through her homework as well as her plans for New Athens.  She walks around all day smelling like coffee though, and it’s enough to make her never want to get near the stuff when she finally quits a few months before graduation.

167.  Growing up at camp, Annabeth’s used to eating pretty healthy.  However, that does not mean she can’t inhale junk food like the next person.  Her favorite non-healthy snack has to be chocolate covered peanuts (specifically, Goobers, but she’s not super picky on that).  On the flip side, she doesn’t really like peanut M&Ms.  Despite the fact that people have tried to convince her they’re basically the same thing, she’ll have none of it.  She claims that the candy coating gives the M&Ms a completely different flavor and basically refuses to eat them.

168.  There’s only one movie that Annabeth has ever cried at: Dinsey’s Hercules.  And, it didn’t even start until she was in her teens.  Even in college and beyond, she spends the entire film pointing out things that the movie got wrong.  But, the last ten minutes of it has her tearing up every single time.

169.  Annabeth is a Slytherin.  She also thinks that the people who combine houses (Slytherclaws, Gryffinpuffs, etc.) are just lying to themselves to make them feel better.

170.  Annabeth and Percy end up adopting two dogs from a nearby animal shelter.  They definitely went with the intention of only getting one, because their apartment was still small, and they were super busy all the time.  But, they couldn’t decide between two and ultimately decided to just get both of them.  Since there were two, each of them decided they got to rename one each.  So Otis and Aramis Jackson were added to the clan.

171.  Annabeth’s eyesight starts to get really poor during her sophomore year of college.  She dealt with it being slightly fuzzy, too stubborn to get her eyes checked out, for more than a year before finally giving in.  While she thanks the gods that she’s allowed to get contacts from the get go, her back up glasses have large, black frames and she feels sufficiently like a dork when she has to wear them.

172.  They’re juniors in college the first time the question of marriage is seriously discussed.  It’s Christmas break, and they're spending a weekend at her dad’s before Percy’s family flies in to celebrate the holiday.  Her stepmom meant it as a joke when she asked when they were getting married, and everyone--including Percy--looks stunned with Annabeth answers: “the summer after we graduate, that Saturday in the weird week where July becomes August.”  She says it without even looking up from the piece of chicken that’s she cutting, and is genuinely confused at everyone’s expression when she does look up.

173.  That same night, after everyone goes to bed, Percy asks her if she was being serious about what she said at dinner.  Annabeth responds in the affirmative, explaining how she felt like it went along with the whole idea that she wanted to be married young.  And, she wants to change her last name before she makes her mark in the mortal architectural world so that when she becomes a sort of “brand,” she’ll be restricted from doing that.  Since everything in their life happens in the summer, it only made sense that they’d get married then and she picked the weekend closest to the middle of their birthdays.  He acts all offended for about half a second, claiming that he can’t believe she made all these plans without even asking her to marry him, but they’re both a little too giddy at the prospect of actually getting married for them to believe it’s actually genuine.  Their laughter only grows when Annabeth gets down on one knee and asks him to marry her, slipping his college ring onto his ring finger to keep up the charade.

174.  Technically, they get engaged twice.  The first time, when Annabeth proposed with a college ring and it’s the time that she swears is the official start of their engagement.  The second time takes another year to crop up, and they’ve already started planning their wedding when Percy slides the engagement ring onto her hand.  It’s the second time that he swears is the official start of the engagement.

175.  In high school, the running gag was that if Percy didn’t graduate, then he couldn’t come to New Rome with her.  Of course, it was a ridiculous thing to say, because they both knew that no matter what happened, she would not be leaving him behind.  In college, the running gag becomes that if he doesn’t graduate, then he won’t get to marry her.  Of course, it proves to be just as ridiculous as their old gag, and not just because they’ve already put their deposit down on the venue.

176.  She designed exactly four structures for New Athens before deciding it wasn’t worth trying to do it all on her own.  She would go insane.  So, Annabeth handed over her designs and basic outline of the town to the Athena campers living at camp.  Those campers team up with the Hephaestus cabin to work on the city, careful to make sure each of Annabeth’s designs--including the house she made for herself and Percy--go into the final construction of the city.  It’s not ready to move into when they graduate college, but it’s closer than anything Annabeth could have achieved on her own.

177.  When they graduate from college, it’s a huge ordeal.  They have their friends from both camps come out, Percy’s family flies in, Annabeth’s family (including Magnus and two of his friends) shows up, and most of them end up crashing in their tiny apartment.  It’s cramped, and you can’t walk two steps without stepping on someone at night, but it’s great.  They have a barbecue after the ceremony, and the entire day is spent laughing and reminiscing on the various instances that made everyone doubt either Percy or Annabeth would end up as college graduates.  All through the day, Nico keeps shooting her strange glances, like he suspects something, but never voices a concern.  The party lasts for an entire weekend, and when people finally start leaving, they all express excitement at reuniting again in New York in a few months for the wedding.

178.  They decided to move back to New York after graduation.  Although Annabeth liked being close to her family and the safety of New Rome, neither of them felt they were truly at home.  So, two weeks after graduation, Percy and Annabeth pack as many of their belongings as they can into their car, and drop off the rest with Frederick, who promises to mail them soon.  It’s a long trip that’s only supposed to take four days, but because they’re who they are and constantly need breaks, monster attacks, and a weird case of car sickness from Annabeth, it ends up taking them almost twice that long.  Percy ends up having to drive most of it because Annabeth is exhausted or has a headache for most of the trip, and spends as much of it as she can sleeping.

179.  Since they don’t have an apartment when they move back to the city, Percy and Annabeth move back into his old room at Sally’s until they find one they like.  It’s still small and not in the best part of the city, but it’s theirs and her dad insists that he doesn’t mind helping them out a little.  At least, it’ll do until Annabeth’s job becomes more than just an internship and Percy finishes up with the final three courses that he has to take in order for his teaching license to be compatible with New York’s teaching requirements.

180.  She’s never been good at taking medication.  It doesn’t matter if there’s people there to remind her to do it, or if she puts post it notes up everywhere to try and get herself to take it.  It’s just one of those things that slips her mind.  It was the case when her stepmom put her on medication for her ADHD, and now, it’s the case with her birth control.  And it’s hard for her pills to work if she never takes them.  Which might be why she finds out she’s pregnant a little over a month before her wedding day.

181.  She absolutely does not want to invite any part of their godly family, and insists that they won’t even show up if they are invited.  But, Piper convinces her that it’ll be a slight if they don’t get invited to it, so Annabeth eventually relents.  Her invitation to Hera though has to be mailed a week later by Percy when Annabeth insists that it got “lost.”  However, due to the fact that Hera is the goddess of marriage, he vetoes her in saying that it’s asking for trouble if they don’t have her come.  Everyone is surprised when most of the gods RSVP with a yes.

182.   I keep seeing people saying Percy and Annabeth’ll get married at Camp and I’m like... no.  Okay here we go.  They get married at Montauk, and there’s this place called like the Navy Beach House or something, and it’s super nice and expensive but Frederick insists on paying for it because he knows that this is what Annabeth wants.  And he hasn’t really felt like he’s been able to really give her anything she wants before, so this is something that he goes all out for.  Also keep in mind, mortals can’t enter camp, and there is no way that Percy and Annabeth would get married without Sally, Paul, and baby Blofis around.  They want it to be a small thing, but of course, what Percy and Annabeth want and what usually happens end up being in complete contrast with each other.  It’s another huge party, with people from both camps coming in, basically all the gods showing up in human-esque form, the hunters of Artemis showing up (but they kind of have to, since Thalia’s in the wedding), in addition to the mortal sides of both their families.  The gods put up a protective border for the day, because that many demigods in one place would definitely draw monsters.  And Aphrodite has been waiting for this day since Percy and Annabeth were eleven, so no one is messing it up unless they want to deal with her wrath.  It’s great, but there’s so much preparation and planning and hugging relatives that it seems to go by in a blur.  Annabeth is sufficiently disappointed when the only piece of wedding cake she gets is the piece that Percy smashed in her face.

183.   She manages to keep the whole pregnancy thing a secret from everyone (except she’s like 85% sure Sally knows something’s up, and Nico definitely knows.  Turns out he can sense new life just like he can sense people dying and that’s why he gave her the weird looks at the graduation).  It’s during the reception that she just writes “I’m pregnant” on a napkin that she passes to Percy before walking off to go greet more guests.  The look he gives her when she finally makes eye contact again is priceless.

184.  She changes her last name to Jackson as soon as she can after they get back from the honeymoon.  Piper gave her some grief about it, claiming that it was giving into the patriarchy or something, but Annabeth didn’t care.  She finally was officially a part of a family that was going to be permanent and that was going to be there for her, no matter what.  Changing her last name to symbolize her belonging to that family was 100% her choice and something she’d decided on doing not long after her and Percy started talking about getting married.

185.  Annabeth wanted to get her master’s directly out of college and was even accepted into a program.  However, she decided to delay it due to the fact she was the idea of working, going to school, and taking care of a newborn seemed next to impossible.  Annabeth knows she’s incredible, but she’s not that incredible.  It actually gets pushed back a lot farther than she meant to, because all of their kids kind of end up being born back to back to back.  Eventually, she is able to go back to school when the youngest starts kindergarten, and gets her master’s degree, before going on to achieve her doctorate as well.

186.  They have three kids: two boys and a girl.  The first two were not planned.  The only reason they did decide to have a third was because of the whole ‘rule of three.’  Despite the fact that Annabeth proved it was a stupid law on her first quest, something about it still seemed safe.  So, they had one more.  It becomes a tradition for the next two kids that whenever Annabeth finds out she’s pregnant, she just writes it on a napkin and slips it to Percy at the end of dinner, before taking one of the kids to another room in their apartment.

187.  It’s after their second kid is born that New Athens is completed and they’re able to move back into the safety of camp borders, while still living as functioning adults.  It’s kind of a difficult commute for Annabeth for work, but she doesn’t care.  She likes living in a home she designed with her family.  And knowing their safe is worth the trip she has to take every day to get to the firm she works at.  When Annabeth got to take Percy around the house the first time after it was done, and explain the intricate details of it all and why she designed things certain ways, she was couldn’t stop bouncing on her feet as she walked.  They totally make out like teenagers in their newly finished kitchen before remembering that their kids are being watched by a few of Apollo’s kids in camp that probably should be relieved of their babysitting duties as soon as possible.

188.  Their youngest gets Percy’s water powers and he can’t properly control them until he’s about eight.  However, that doesn’t mean that his emotions don’t set them off.  Annabeth loses track of the number of times she gets doused in toilet water (to which Percy can’t help but laugh every time) and his siblings find themselves getting water from the faucet shooting straight at their faces every time there’s an argument.

189.  There are family Halloween costumes pretty much every year until their oldest is ten.  Some of Annabeth’s favorites include the Incredibles, Batman, the Scooby Doo gang, and the Addams Family.

190.  Due to the fact that both Percy and Annabeth are ADHD and dyslexic, all three of their kids have ADHD.  Only their daughter is not diagnosed with dyslexia and there are definitely tears of joy when Annabeth first hears her daughter read through a sentence without stumbling any more than any other child learning to read. 

191.  When each Jackson kid is six, they receive a plastic sword to begin learning to sword fight.  Granted, it probably seemed overkill, but all three of them definitely do still have a potent smell.  So, it’s necessary for them to learn how to fight.  After proving that they are capable of handling a blade and not hurting themselves (or pulling it on their siblings for the fun of it), they are given a real weapon, made especially for them by Tyson.  

192.  Board games, card games, and puzzles aren’t actually a thing that can go on in the Jackson household because everyone is so competitive about it.  Pieces go “missing” from puzzles because someone took it so they can put the last piece in.  Cards get traded below table tops to help someone win a hand.  Board games usually get tipped over “accidentally” when someone gets up to go to the kitchen for something to drink.  

193.  Annabeth falls asleep more at the kitchen table than she does in her own bed.  She gets wrapped up in some new project and insists on it being perfect.  So, even though she swears she’ll only be up for fifteen more minutes, there’s no telling what time Annabeth will actually pass out and Percy gave up trying to wake her up to come to bed about a year after they got married.  It just seemed that when he would wake her up, she’d murmur something about being awake enough to keep going and that she still definitely had five more minutes of work time left in her.

194.  She’s totally that mom who frightens teachers and coaches a like about her kids.  Like, when they make a mistake getting onto her kid for something that wasn’t their fault, or they take them out of a play when they’re clearly the best player on the team, Annabeth loses it.  She ends up banned from her daughter’s volleyball games for a year.

195.  When they take their kids to Disney for the first time, Annabeth is just as excited as any of the Jackson spawn.  She spends the entire time describing the inspiration for the facades of the buildings, as well as how the forced perspective is working.  She spends weeks planning their days down to the minute, factoring other potential plans for extra wait times, shorter wait times, etc. but ends up ditching all of it as soon as she rides Dumbo for the first time.  No one really understands why, but that is her ride.  They have to ride it first the two days they go to the Magic Kingdom during that trip.

196.   It’s not uncommon for either Percy or Annabeth to be asked to go out and escort a halfblood to camp.  Typically, they go as a team on the weekend, after dropping their kids off with Sally and Paul or letting them stay in their cabins at camp.  However, after getting a call from Chiron about a halfblood near by, Annabeth opted to take on the mission by herself.  After all, she’d be heading back close to camp’s borders at the end of the day anyway.  It only made sense to find the demigod and take them back with her.  But it wasn’t one demigod that she found.  There were three.  All kids under the age of twelve, and all looking absolutely terrified and banged up from a long journey.  There’s a rushed warning about something following them, and Annabeth decides then and there that it’s probably better to take them back to camp now instead of convincing them to hang out at work with her for the rest of the day first.  True to their word, there’s a cyclops on the trail of the three half bloods, who is ruthless in its attempts to hunt them down.  It destroys Annabeth’s car, and they’re but a few hundred feet from the protective borders of camp when she tells them to run and she’ll hold it off.   And it’s almost poetic, in a way.  When she’s turned to call directions to them, the cyclops knocks her to the side with a blow she didn’t see coming.  It sends her knife flying out of her hands, but she knows that she has to stall it in order for the kids to get to safety.  And they do.  They make it.  But Annabeth doesn’t.  She’s a month away from turning forty one when she dies.

197.  There’s a weird murmuring when Annabeth goes into the Underworld, and a few of the guard spirits seem to click excitedly when she arrives.  Despite her better judgement, she decides to go in front of the judges, to see if there is any sort of reward waiting for her on the other side.  Maybe she’ll get Elysium, or maybe--if she pleads her case hard enough--she’ll be able to wait for a few dozen years before Percy shows up so they can make the decision together.  After all, it was never a conversation that had popped up before.  Whenever they got close to the topic, they’d quickly find something else to talk about.  It definitely took her by surprise when she made her way in and found that she’d been granted not Elysium, but the Isles of the Blessed.  Her third life had been completed.  It’s then that she’s granted the memories of the first two lives as well before being ushered on.  In each of them, there are two common elements.  The first, there’s always a demigod present.  Somehow, the Greek gods continue to plague her life in each of her three incarnations.  The other, the boy she falls in love with is always the same.  Different names (except for his first and last lives, a fact she finds amusing), different parentage, slightly different personalities but the same goofy grin and same quick wit.

198.  Her first life found her as a princess in Ancient Greece, with parents who claimed she was more beautiful than Aphrodite.  The claim was considered blasphemy, and she was chained to a rock to be eaten for her parents’ words.  It seemed unfair, but she was too prideful even then to try and beg for her life from the gods.  So, she kept silent and faced her fate.  But her fate never came.  Instead, there was a boy--a demigod--who carried Medusa’s head that turned the monster to stone.  They married and lived happily ever after.   Seriously, depending on what version of the myth you read, Perseus and Andromeda are described to look exactly like Percy and Annabeth so fight me on this.

199.  Her second life had her as another Greek demigod, born in England.  This time, she was a daughter of Apollo.  Her mother had died when she was young, leaving the girl to become a charge to an aspiring artist during the early years of the English Renaissance.  He taught her how to paint and how to play the lyre, which she found that she was rather good at.  A soldier heard her playing, and quick banter made the girl find this soldier interesting.  Due to who her father was, she was talented with a bow and arrow, so she cut off her hair, ran away from her home, disguised herself as a man, and joined the army.  It was foolish, of course, and she died not long after by throwing herself in the way of a sword that was meant for the soldier she cared for.

200.  One of the privileges of being in the Isles is that she can travel through the Underworld, but it comes with stipulations.  It can never be for too long, she can’t look for people she used to know who chose to stay in the Fields of Asphodel, she can’t speak to demigods that come down for a quest, and the Fields of Punishment are completely off limits.  She uses this slight freedom to visit Daedalus when he’s working, often offering up tips for the redesigns he’s doing and to play catch with Cerberus.  As much as she enjoys the relaxing after three taxing lives, it does get a little lonely, even in a perpetual paradise.  There are definitely some happy tears shed when she finally reunites with who she can only call her soulmate.

[sawcolor91-blog]

hello?

Is blogging still a thing? I wouldn't know.....it's been a while, hasn't it? This corner of the Internet has been dark for so long I may have forgotten what I'm doing, and I often wonder, why write? Who is reading--and who cares what I have to say? Why have I been putting myself out there for so long?

My second semester of nursing school brought with it paper after paper--millions of words written late at night on mostly-boring subjects, all of which had to be carefully formatted and cited--two things that will eventually suck the soul right out of a girl. Every corrected paper came back the same--top marks for research, presentation, flow, grammar, a bunch of other boring technical stuff (except my in-text citations--I've decided I really hate APA format), and always a comment scribbled large in red, "but I can still hear your voice". So I tried my hardest to write like a robot, presenting only facts stripped of all creative thought. And finally, after enough papers, I feel like they finally stifled my voice.

The last few months I've had ideas fill my brain--it's always overflowing--usually late at night or when I'm out on the trail. I'll jot down a note on my phone or in a little journal I have, but I can't seem to turn them into anything more than just a thought. They sit there like seeds that haven't been watered. I've slowly started sorting through some of those seeds, seeing if I could make sense of them--taking time to water and find a warm spot in the sun so they can grow.

So I've been writing a little here and there--in the quiet hours of the morning, and slowly piecing together thoughts to share again. This space is so outdated and dusty--links are old and broken, there are many questions unanswered, I know. Sometimes I feel like torching the place and starting fresh.....but for now, here's a very brief update from the last 6 months. If you follow along on my instagram (@_sheenarae) then nothing is probably new to you, but for the rest of you, I present to you: 

January-June 2016 (abridged version)

January. 

Started the year in Montana, atop a frosty butte. A new semester. Hospital clinicals--placed some IVs, pulled some staples, changed bandages on an amputated leg. Watched people come out of anesthesia which is super entertaining! Gave an enema on my birthday. Yeah--I turned 33, it wasn't my favorite birthday this year--the winter was long and dark and I was like, "HOW DID I GET SO OLD?!" We climbed a lot at the gym, went south for a weekend to get on some real rock, and took advantage of all the snow--the kids are skiing like champs! 

February. 

uhhhhh......haha I can't remember much.  I think there was.....snow? My head was buried in those aforementioned papers. I played weekly pond hockey with some awesome mamas in the valley. Traded my running shoes for cross country skis. We headed south again for an icy cold campout (like frost on my sleeping bag in the morning, icy cold). Jonah got glasses. Climbed some more....

March.

Clinicals at the State Mental Hospital--I learned aLOT.....but I'm glad that's over with--phew! Robby and I took a weekend date down to St. George (more on that later). I teamed up with my friend Mike Butler and he got me lifting weights and eating waaaaayyyyyy more protein. I have been a pretty scrawny runt my whole life and I've been working hard these last few months to get stronger so I could improve my climbing--it's working! (Mike is awesome by the way if you want to reach out to him for your own weight loss/weight gain program, check out his website!) So yeah, lots of weights, more paper writing, tests. Easter was in March so I got dressed and did my hair--go me!

April. 

I took an online Statistics class that I kind of forgot to pay attention to (I need deadlines), so April was all about learning what Statistics is (still don't know), so I could ace my final and be done with it forever (did it!) Jonah turned 11 (how?!) We got some more baby chicks. I stressed out over finals. We ran away to the desert again and ate at my very favorite restaurant in the whole wide world.

May. 

I finished my first year of nursing school and didn't die! I've been out of school since early May--and it's been the BEST! I started my pre-requisites for nursing school in January 2014 and have not had a lot of time off since. The first summer I had a few classes, and then last summer I had to take my TEAS test to try and get into my program, and then I had to apply, interview, stress stress stress. Then I got IN, and had exactly one million things to do over the summer to get ready for school to start--it never felt like a true vacation with all the deadlines weighing me down. So these last few summer weeks have been nothing short of the best days ever. I've been running, biking, climbing, camping, trying to keep the weeds from taking over my garden (it's impossible), and just hanging out with my family. Robby and I see each other again--our school/work schedules were so conflicting I felt like we would sometimes just wave in passing, but now we even go on real live dates.

June.

Kids out of school! We've been to the desert, I took the kids to Montana, and we are loving summer evenings outside. Lucy got her cast off from her broken arm in May--she also turned NINE!

Biking is fun, and so are strangers who forgot to say "look here" when they take the photo. I forgot how much I love zipping through the trees on my bike.

Backyard jam sessions....

Early morning climbs with my girls....

   ....and now, we are ready for July! Consider yourself officially updated, and maybe next time I'll dive into those seeds I have growing.

Thanks to the one person (mom) who read through this! Talk soon

*I have so many unanswered comments on here--sorry about that! I really have not been around. I also have over 3000 unread emails.....whoops. While most of them are ads and what not, some of them are from YOU GUYS, and I'm sorry, I've just had to really prioritize my life this past little while and all things internet-involved are pretty far down my list. Thanks for always being here though!

*I get lots of questions about why I'm not posting recipes anymore. We really keep our meals pretty simple and most of what we eat is already on my blog. I just haven't had any extra time to develop anything new, let alone take pictures of it. When in doubt, make eggs!

*I always get such a great response when I post the gear we love and use--I will continue to do that, and I apologize for old links that may not be taking you where you want to go. I will try to get an updated gear list for you soon!

*If I get enough questions on this post, I can do another Q&A post like I've done in the past. 

SaveSave

Source: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2016/06/hello.html

[snapdrakegames-blog]

So I’ve been reading OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING

Check it out here. It’s really good, sort of a crazy apocalyptic journal thing in a really easy-to-digest format, and you should go read it now because past this point I’m going to delve into spoilers and theorizing. 

We good?

Cool. For context, I just finished Tropes, the eleventh chapter thing, though I’m not exactly in the dark about how things unfold from here. I’m friend/acquaintances with a friend/acquaintance of RAPTURE’s author, and I’ve heard a thing or two about it.

So.

One thing I find really interesting about RAPTURE so far is that it seems to be exploring the sort of dissonance between what happens in reality and what gets conveyed through text. Jordan, the main character, seems to give a decent enough description of events, and since he’s our only source of narration we’re intrinsically inclined to trust his account of things, but the story seems to go out of its way to establish that what we’re hearing from Jordan isn’t a good indicator of what’s happening in reality. For example, in Aubade feat. Mistress Dread, Jordan writes about how much he really wants to have sex with his female companion, Donnie, and then follows it up by writing: “God, I hope she doesn’t read this. I like to think that all of this is, like.. the opposite of me.” Maybe Jordan is trying to justify his creepiness and absolve himself of guilt, or maybe it’s commenting on how a textual medium might not be the best way to get to know someone as a person. Or maybe it’s doing both, but the latter option also seems more likely when you consider the attached note on Cakes mean the party funds: “ How are we sure any of this stuff even happened? For all I know, it’s probably an allegory for whatever boring political stuff led to the current state the world’s in now.” 

On the topic of the addendums, there’s definitely a lot of stuff that’s unknown in regards to these. For a start, they’re definitely written by multiple different people, but why are they all there, attached to this one journal, is definitely a mystery. In any case, they’re clearly notes added in the future, where these journals seem to have spread around as some sort of really early historical text, or, if the rampant symbolism and frequent Christian allusions are an indicator, perhaps something more analogous to our Bible. There are a bunch of people saying a bunch of things: the previously mentioned Allegory writer, a few people saying really obscure, slightly disquieting things like “We are all voices in the void,” or something, someone who seems to be using the text to teach a grammatical lesson, and a recurring character, a guy who was part of a band that saw mild success and has been reading over his recently deceased Dad’s journals. Jordan’s son from the future? Unlikely, due to the context of this person’s entries, but likely the son of someone who ultimately comes into possession of these journals. There’s also this really weird one I’ve recently come across that ends in a cipher. It’s not Atbash, it’s not Caesarian... it might be Vigenere, but the pass phase would have to be something other than OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING. If anyone can help me out, I’d appreciate it. Here’s the cipher.

Cyetbwla ewbtwnx eu tam ohytv, Sbjyw if lbnw lv usnz hcfaz Agl hkvdadfr gx spta bzx vxhoshogeay mw kxl ezo J.. kyeh, dhh Q jxhtdy ba. Naa Yemcjg vn Jafz Ztjjyail, tz Q'v cbzfxz pt. Lwex vn qov aur dhvx lgnibwd ns Uvybsxl ex vn ealwhz if lbnw nw Ag I esxbyhtx xska wx Rbdnnnl th ggn Icl umhcfwaeeg lapa as ocn yky yhc. Lapa as gcl xrlrrwfx. Apas jg zhn te.

On the topic of Jordan and his odd tendency to write down whatever he’s experiencing, presumably in real time... yeah, it’s kind of like the logical fallacy of most Found Footage movies, the whole “why are people recording everything so closely, unnecessarily, and likely to the detriment of their continued survival?” Jordan notes how the journal is letting him stay calm, but he also notes that he writes while driving a car, and there’s usually a string of profanities to accompany any fight scene. Are we just supposed to suspend our disbelief in order to let the story play out? Well, the idea I’m toying with now is that we’re not actually reading Jordan’s journals; no, we’re reading a stream of his consciousness, and the journal writing is happening offscreen. It would explain how Jordan can just switch to a new journal in the middle of a chapter without a shift in the narrative, and a lot of what he’s thinking probably is what is written in the journal. People do have a tendency to think aloud what they write when they write it. This would explain how the narration continues even through all these dangerous encounters, but it doesn’t explain how the addendums fit in or whenever there’s a note describing a drawing in the journals.

On the topic of Donnie, I find it intriguing how a reader’s impression of a character can be tinted based on the reader’s perspective. Since the narration is so far removed from Donnie, we only know what Jordan knows about her, and maybe not even what Jordan knows depending on how much he writes down. Further removing us from her is the fact that Jordan is ridiculously socially inept and has more or less no understanding of Donnie, her feelings, and what she thinks. Given all this, it’s of little surprise that it’s hard to get a read on Donnie and what/how she’s doing. 

On the topic of excessive symbolism: you ever read something like Animal Farm and just immediately thought “This is supposed to mean something.” You ever come across a literary work that just screams at you that it’s supposed to be interpreted as something more than what it is? RAPTURE definitely falls into that category, and I think it might even be self aware about it. How far down does this rabbit hole go? Jordan Doolie, DJay online, is the main character of this story, OH GOD THE RAPTURE IS BURNING. The story itself happens to be written by a guy called DJay32. I’ve heard Jordan, on occassion, be referred to as a “deconstructed self-insert:” Jordan is Djay, or he’s written to resemble Djay on a surface level in order to purposefully fool the audience, one of the two. In either case, consider that perhaps the journals chronicling Jordan’s adventure across post-Apocalyptic Britain are fictional- even in-universe. Fictional Jordan is writing this adventure about Fictional Fictional Jordan while in turn being written by Djay here in what I presume to be reality. The addendums in this case become symbolic of people’s reaction to the text, or to fiction in general. That guy with the dead dad represent people who find personal meaning in literature, the part with the grammar lesson represents people who teach with.learn from literature, and that part where someone questions if all of this even happened in the first place... that’s me, I guess. Course it doesn’t explain the addendums of people who claim to have experienced similar things to Fictional Fictional Jordan... fanfic writers?

[yogurtcut5-blog]

hello?

Is blogging still a thing? I wouldn't know.....it's been a while, hasn't it? This corner of the Internet has been dark for so long I may have forgotten what I'm doing, and I often wonder, why write? Who is reading--and who cares what I have to say? Why have I been putting myself out there for so long?

My second semester of nursing school brought with it paper after paper--millions of words written late at night on mostly-boring subjects, all of which had to be carefully formatted and cited--two things that will eventually suck the soul right out of a girl. Every corrected paper came back the same--top marks for research, presentation, flow, grammar, a bunch of other boring technical stuff (except my in-text citations--I've decided I really hate APA format), and always a comment scribbled large in red, "but I can still hear your voice". So I tried my hardest to write like a robot, presenting only facts stripped of all creative thought. And finally, after enough papers, I feel like they finally stifled my voice.

The last few months I've had ideas fill my brain--it's always overflowing--usually late at night or when I'm out on the trail. I'll jot down a note on my phone or in a little journal I have, but I can't seem to turn them into anything more than just a thought. They sit there like seeds that haven't been watered. I've slowly started sorting through some of those seeds, seeing if I could make sense of them--taking time to water and find a warm spot in the sun so they can grow.

So I've been writing a little here and there--in the quiet hours of the morning, and slowly piecing together thoughts to share again. This space is so outdated and dusty--links are old and broken, there are many questions unanswered, I know. Sometimes I feel like torching the place and starting fresh.....but for now, here's a very brief update from the last 6 months. If you follow along on my instagram (@_sheenarae) then nothing is probably new to you, but for the rest of you, I present to you: 

January-June 2016 (abridged version)

January. 

Started the year in Montana, atop a frosty butte. A new semester. Hospital clinicals--placed some IVs, pulled some staples, changed bandages on an amputated leg. Watched people come out of anesthesia which is super entertaining! Gave an enema on my birthday. Yeah--I turned 33, it wasn't my favorite birthday this year--the winter was long and dark and I was like, "HOW DID I GET SO OLD?!" We climbed a lot at the gym, went south for a weekend to get on some real rock, and took advantage of all the snow--the kids are skiing like champs! 

February. 

uhhhhh......haha I can't remember much.  I think there was.....snow? My head was buried in those aforementioned papers. I played weekly pond hockey with some awesome mamas in the valley. Traded my running shoes for cross country skis. We headed south again for an icy cold campout (like frost on my sleeping bag in the morning, icy cold). Jonah got glasses. Climbed some more....

March.

Clinicals at the State Mental Hospital--I learned aLOT.....but I'm glad that's over with--phew! Robby and I took a weekend date down to St. George (more on that later). I teamed up with my friend Mike Butler and he got me lifting weights and eating waaaaayyyyyy more protein. I have been a pretty scrawny runt my whole life and I've been working hard these last few months to get stronger so I could improve my climbing--it's working! (Mike is awesome by the way if you want to reach out to him for your own weight loss/weight gain program, check out his website!) So yeah, lots of weights, more paper writing, tests. Easter was in March so I got dressed and did my hair--go me!

April. 

I took an online Statistics class that I kind of forgot to pay attention to (I need deadlines), so April was all about learning what Statistics is (still don't know), so I could ace my final and be done with it forever (did it!) Jonah turned 11 (how?!) We got some more baby chicks. I stressed out over finals. We ran away to the desert again and ate at my very favorite restaurant in the whole wide world.

May. 

I finished my first year of nursing school and didn't die! I've been out of school since early May--and it's been the BEST! I started my pre-requisites for nursing school in January 2014 and have not had a lot of time off since. The first summer I had a few classes, and then last summer I had to take my TEAS test to try and get into my program, and then I had to apply, interview, stress stress stress. Then I got IN, and had exactly one million things to do over the summer to get ready for school to start--it never felt like a true vacation with all the deadlines weighing me down. So these last few summer weeks have been nothing short of the best days ever. I've been running, biking, climbing, camping, trying to keep the weeds from taking over my garden (it's impossible), and just hanging out with my family. Robby and I see each other again--our school/work schedules were so conflicting I felt like we would sometimes just wave in passing, but now we even go on real live dates.

June.

Kids out of school! We've been to the desert, I took the kids to Montana, and we are loving summer evenings outside. Lucy got her cast off from her broken arm in May--she also turned NINE!

Biking is fun, and so are strangers who forgot to say "look here" when they take the photo. I forgot how much I love zipping through the trees on my bike.

Backyard jam sessions....

Early morning climbs with my girls....

   ....and now, we are ready for July! Consider yourself officially updated, and maybe next time I'll dive into those seeds I have growing.

Thanks to the one person (mom) who read through this! Talk soon

*I have so many unanswered comments on here--sorry about that! I really have not been around. I also have over 3000 unread emails.....whoops. While most of them are ads and what not, some of them are from YOU GUYS, and I'm sorry, I've just had to really prioritize my life this past little while and all things internet-involved are pretty far down my list. Thanks for always being here though!

*I get lots of questions about why I'm not posting recipes anymore. We really keep our meals pretty simple and most of what we eat is already on my blog. I just haven't had any extra time to develop anything new, let alone take pictures of it. When in doubt, make eggs!

*I always get such a great response when I post the gear we love and use--I will continue to do that, and I apologize for old links that may not be taking you where you want to go. I will try to get an updated gear list for you soon!

*If I get enough questions on this post, I can do another Q&A post like I've done in the past. 

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Source: http://inthelittleredhouse.blogspot.com/2016/06/hello.html