#traveling light today

[jlmahmud]

[monstrousproductions]

One of my favourite things about SFF is the way it lets you take an issue or an idea, and separate it out so you can look at it more closely in isolation. I think I remember Diana Wynne Jones saying something along those lines - that genre fiction gives you enough distance between the idea and yourself so you can walk around it and see it from all angles.

That's one of the things I've really enjoyed about Travelling Light so far. The archive entries are, by necessity, short and limited in scope. We can't summarise the entirety of a culture and all its iterations in a 10 minute audio log! But we can peel off one idea and give ourselves some space to walk around it and ask questions about it.

Like, in Episode 27 where we see the people protesting their landlords in Nimidol. To me, that wasn't an episode that said, "Our world would be better if we lived like this."

It was more a way of inviting further thought and consideration. What would our world look like if we lived like this? What does it mean to use shame to change people's behaviours? What does private landlording look like in this fictional space, and how do you feel about it?

I like as well that the questions some episodes might raise for one listener might not be the same as for another. Some people really resonated with the people in Episode 13 who used explicit legal contracts to navigate social interactions because in the real world, it really sucks to be caught out by unspoken rules nobody's ever explained.

But there's also something to be explored there about trusting people to keep to the social contract, and how their vibes-based government can do its work - and, more broadly, what do we think the work of government actually is.

I don't know, I'm just having a lot of fun with that! It's one of the really nice things about have such a short episode length - we literally don't have time to get into the nitty gritty of everything, which means there's loads more space for you all to bring your own ideas and interpretations. Which, as a show literally built around audience participation and co-creation, feels appropriate!

[luthiest]

11.02.23

edinburgh ! tysm for all the recs, i could only get to some in the 2 days we were there… the big stuff: arthur’s seat, edinburgh castle, (the audio tour was actually terrible) armchair books, golden hare books, dean village, the leith river walk, torn vintage, a super sweet cafe called grow urban… no surgeons hall or botanical gardens unfortunately :/// but my mom and i did get matching barbour waxed jackets, which i’ve been wanting for a while for the boston weather !

a perfect vacation after poland ☺���

🎧 : strained - no vacation

[sadlynotthevoid]

I'm not sure if I told you guys about the time I dreamed that 20ish Jason Todd died yet again and Death was pissed off because "really? Again? Wtf Batman. The universe doesn't keep reviving your son just so you can see how much he lasts!" And "He has a work to do you know?!". Besides, she's fond of the bright young soul.

So, she calls her uncle to help him. And what you know? Her uncle is the God of Death (because yes, my brain is like that sometimes). They sit to talk and come up with a solution.

First, taking advantage of the effects still present of the last time-space crisis and the spirits protecting the soul, they regress the time of this universe to when Jay had just left All Caste, way before he had came back to Gotham.

Then, Death places Red Hood!Jason's memories on the soul of his younger self. Not too harsh to force his soul to crack, but not too light to let them fall. Just deep enough so he finds them when he meditates.

And by last, God of Death tells the spirits where they should guide the boy to. The perfect place for him.

Where is the best place for a soul who craves for home and safety? Of course, that's with someone who has the heart to care and accept a new loved one and the determination to protect them.

That's how Jason Todd, teenage assassin in an existential crisis, ends up waking up in the softest bed he has ever been in some foreign country. At his side there's a redhead teen sitting in a sofa, a book in his hands and other boy— this one with black hair and pajamas— lying on his lap.

The redhead— Cale, as he presents himself— is mysterious but kind hearted guy. He also knows things. So much so that if he weren't as he is, Jason would suspect. As things are, he knows he's just used to collect information. A bit like a bat, but not quite. A bat would plan how to use it against the possible enemy. Cale? Well, he doesn't even bother to hide what he realized about him. He's also ridiculously casual about it.

Who offers an assassin if they want their hidden weapons back? This guy, apparently.

Jason only knows he's not totally unconscious because at one point an old guy entered with tea and pastries for the three and Cale, the little shit, choose that moment to reassure Jason.

"Don't worry. My butler is an assassin too and we don't treat him different for it."

The old geezer almost let got the porcelain teapot to the floor. Though, points for him for recovering so fast.

"Young master? May this Ron know who you would be talking about?"

"Hm? Who do you think? Hans? The only thing he can kill is Rok Soo's humor. It's you, obviously."

"..."

Rok Soo, the sleeping beauty complex guy pretending to be asleep on Cale's lap, was sweating badly. If everyone in the room weren't already aware he was clearly pretending, someone may had thought he was ill.

Later on, he realizes there was a reason Cale had said that at that moment.

He's looking at the butler subtly terrorize the boys to behave, treating the siblings like two particularly mischievous puppies. Then he turns around and uses the same tune to advise him to be careful with his wounds. And that's when he thinks 'Oh. He doesn't see me as a menace'.

Of course he doesn't. His employer just confirmed he's aware of his identity— at least partially— and his own nature. The biggest advantage of an assassin is their secrecy. After their identity is exposed, the only reason they won't attack is if the assassin believes the risk is worthy. Telling the assassin he knows he's an assassin was his way to show Jason's own intentions: none.

Jason didn't intend to end up in that field where these teens find him. He didn't intend to be brought in their vacation house. He definitely didn't plan that the people to found him passed out would be whoever these rich guys were.

But he didn't have anything against all of this either.

Well, maybe the wound. He could make it without the blood loose and the soon-to-be scar to add to his collection.

Either way, at least he had a safe place to stay and think. Just think. Because, the memories he saw— what is he supposed to do now that he has his answer?

His da— Bruce. Bruce didn't care for him as much as Jason does for Bruce. Bruce obviously didn't love him as he thought. And certainly, Bruce was way more willingly to harm him than he believed.

And Jason— well, Jason couldn't waste a second life on a man who didn't put hin even at the same level than the Joker of all people. But maybe his expectatives were too high? He hadn't planned what to do if his life was meaningless to him.

So, Jason needed time. Time to ponder and heal. Those things are better done in a safe place.

That's what Jason has in mind when Cale offers him to stay with them.

[catwyk]

annaliese traveller hug is something that can be so special to me

annaliese design by @new-hyperfixation-every-month !!!! tysm for letting me paint her!!!!

[dawnslight-aegis]

2. horizon

Aymeric woke in the early morning hours to his bed empty and the smell of crisp, snowy mountain air overpowering the typical wood-and-fire scent of his bedchamber. With a sigh, he dragged himself from the still-warm sheets, snagged a dressing gown, and padded to the door of his balcony.

His wife was exactly where he expected to find her: perched on the stone railing, staring out at the western horizon, mug of steaming spiced tea in her hands her only ward against the cold. Melancholy seeped into his bones at the sight – he had known Kaede long enough, loved her long enough, to know exactly what her faraway expression heralded. Perhaps not today, but soon, she would be leaving again, her wanderer’s heart calling her out to the unseen distance.

Closing the balcony door quietly behind him, he crossed the distance between them, looped his arms loosely around Kaede’s torso, and was rewarded with her leaning into him without even a twitch of surprise. She was gloriously warm in his arms, as if she had been sitting by the fire, not outside in the cold Coerthan air wearing naught more than one of his shirts, and her lack of reaction to his presence told him clearly that she had heard him approach, as she normally did. Indeed, he could tell absolutely no difference in the woman in his arms now from the one who departed to Ultima Thule, the last of the lingering damage truly healed. There was no need to worry.

Not any more than he ever did, at any rate.

Pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, he murmured, “When do you leave?”

Thankfully, she did not waste either of their time dissembling or playing the fool – instead, he felt her sigh in acknowledgement. “A ship leaves from Sharlayan to Tural tomorrow. Shtola and G’raha are going, as well as all the the Turali who had their artifacts stolen. They’ve asked me to play escort. I was thinking of accepting.” Her tone was almost a question, as if unsure of his reaction.

This would be her first true journey after becoming his wife. Brief sojourns into the Void aside – and wasn’t that a ridiculous thought, that her venturing through time and space to save the world once again barely even registered to him – he had had her in his arms most nights for well over half a year, the longest span that fate had ever afforded them. But as the days grew longer and warmer, he could practically feel her restlessness building, tense and coiled beneath her skin. Taking up the viper’s arts had dispelled some of that pent-up energy, but he'd known it wouldn't last. To say that the thought of her leaving didn’t make his heart ache would be a lie, but she was who she was, and he would not have asked her to be anyone else.

Brow furrowed in mild frustration, he shifted until he could look her in the eye. “Kaede. I knew full well that a ring and a ceremony would not change your nature.”

Blue eyes flicked down to her tea, and then back to the horizon as she took another sip. Her voice was soft when she spoke again: “At times, I wish it had.”

“Well, I do not. If I wish anything, it is that I had the freedom to accompany you – I would not bind you to Ishgard merely because I am.”

Truly, the thing that galled him the most was the fact that out of everyone he loved, only he was expected to remain in one place, the solid stone around which the winds twisted as they wound their own paths through the sky. Kaede, Estinien, hells, even the normally ever-present Lucia – they cast themselves out into the world as they would, while at times it seemed he had to barter like a Lominsan fishwife for every moment of time he spent outside the city's gates.

Leaning fully against him again, Kaede tilted her head back to smile at him, her face a mixture of gratitude and apology. “No chance of you coming with me, I suppose? To… establish diplomatic relationships with another nation? It should just be a quick visit. Perhaps a moon or two.”

Thinking back to the pile of work and multiple nearly democracy-ending problems he’d come back to after their honeymoon that spring, Aymeric grimaced and shook his head. “I’m afraid not. As much as I would prefer it to be otherwise. And only you, my dear, would call crossing an ocean to explore an entirely separate continent ‘quick.’”

“Well, once I’ve seen Tentoawa and Loazenikwe back to their village, perhaps checked in on Marz and Estinien and the twins, I imagine I’ll be headed right back. Unless there’s some horrible world-ending crisis going on over there that I’m yet unaware of,” she said with a grin, but it faded as she took in the vaguely horrified expression on his face.

“My lady, with the life you lead, I dearly wish you would not tempt fate this way.”

Kaede put her teacup on the railing beside her, then turned to face him and twine her arms around his neck, drawing him down to her. “You’re right, as always. Forgive me. I can’t imagine you want to spend the morning standing around into the cold, anyway.”

Breath mingling in the space between them, Aymeric allowed a wolfish grin to come over his face as he cast a long, considering look down at the ample view of her cleavage that such an angle – and lack of proper dress – afforded him. “You’re right, as always,” he echoed back at her, and drank in the sight of her answering smile like a flower basking in summer sunlight, that it might live on through the cold dark winter. “Shall we go back to bed? Perhaps I cannot steal away to another land for a moon or more, but a leisurely morning should be well within my power. And I would not have you leave me without ample reminders of what you shall be missing.”

Lean-muscled legs curled around his hips as Kaede’s mouth found his, her attention finally, fully his, at least for the moment. For the brief span of a heartbeat, drunk on the heat and closeness of her, he thought of simply staying here, rather than lose even the fraction of time with her that it would take to get back inside, but then a rogue gust of wind made his breath catch in his throat and skin shiver. He felt, rather than heard, Kaede’s chuckle, and then nearly groaned at the loss of her warmth as she disentangled herself from his arms and hopped down from the railing, sashaying back into their bedroom with an exaggerated sway of her hips, solely for his benefit.

For one more moment he watched her, the dawn’s light catching on her scales and hair, as he committed the sight of her to memory once again, as he had dozens of times and would, Fury willing, do many, many more times to come. As soon as she disappeared inside he followed her, leaving naught but the abandoned teacup to witness the waking of his city, as the sun broke fully over her horizon.

[sunshineandlyrics]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ✈️ 🇵🇦 Sam Kenyon (Cornishman on tour) posting that he is heading to LATAM to continue the tour with Louis, 29 April 2024.

[butchlifeguard]

who up traveling they octopath

[ID: 2 images. the first is a whisper post of a cowboy sitting sadly with his elbows resting on his knees and his head in one of his hands. the caption is "is it really possible for a emo girl and a country boy to be in a relationship?" the second is a traditionally sketched redraw of alfyn from octopath traveler in the same pose. the text has been cut out from the original photo and overlaid. end ID.]

[hightaled]

i hate fontaine i can't lie the only team i like using rn is mono hydro and the place is just full of fucking eidolons and hydro slimes and the underwater stuff is so tedious

[adventurer-gearld]

Seems like there are a few hard feelings, not like they need a guide for this anyway

[jlmahmud]

[monstrousproductions]

✨🚀 Travelling Light is a science fantasy podcast that follows the Traveller as they meet people from all over the galaxy and collect their stories for their community archives 🚀✨

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts or visit monstrousproductions.org to find out more!

[fatcowboys]

in a years (and some change) time since i i have become a signifigant stoner which really makes sense considering its up there with sumatriptan for relieving migraine pain tbh

[syncopation53]

Me when the narrative is cyclical and a character’s mentality will never truly change or improve because of this

[atldiscourse]

happy birthday awg my least favourite millennial forever

[snakesinsocks2005]

GOD I love you power