#water world

[shoreline-system]

Psst. It's ok if physical activities like showering or taking a bath is all you can do in a day. It's okay if you need a long rest afterwards. It's ok if you planned to do stuff afterwards and realised that, today, you aren't going to be able to do that.

Chronic pain and fatigue are difficult to deal with. Disability makes everything, including these tasks, more difficult. It's okay to take things at your own pace.

[aidigitalfun]

Pink Undine

[theofficialastronomy101]

What the earth looked like and how it may end. A water world before large-scale continents had formed; a "snowball" Earth phase with extreme glaciation; and a world shrouded in smoke after a large asteroid impact. Bottom: Earth today; Earth losing its oceans as the sun becomes hotter; and a final scorched Earth.

[biostatprof]

Surfer contemplating the infinite

[elliepassmore]

A Letter to the Luminous Deep review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: light academia, fantasy, mysteries, epistolary narrative, mental illness rep, LGBTQ+ characters

Big thanks to Netgalley, Orbit, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book starts out relatively slow, and even when it picks up this is a character-driven novel more than a plot-driven one. I've seen it likened to Emily Wilde's, which I would have to agree with, and imo the pacing is pretty similar between the two. With that said, I think the pacing benefits this kind of novel and I enjoyed the unfolding of events and character relationships over the course of the book.

Likewise, this book is written epistolary style, so through letters and journal entries, which I've noticed becoming more of a thing recently. I think it's a really interesting way of telling a story and think it's a great way both to get to know a character and to introduce narrator unreliability (Henerey himself even points out that he purposefully will not write certain things down since he does not want them to be read). I think the way Cathrell utilized the epistolary narrative style for this novel was brilliant. The events that occur are, in and of themselves, a mystery and by having those events told via letter, the mystery is compounded through two layers of characters revealing things. It's a super interesting way to go through a mystery novel and I feel it added to the experience and the suspense. We already know the ending, but E. and Henerey nor Sophy and Vy nor us know how that ending happened, and only the latter two groups are going into this mystery with the knowledge of how it ends.

The world in this novel is quite interesting. It's a mostly-aquatic society that had to rebuild after falling out of the sky 1000 years prior in an event known as the Dive. It seemed to have decimated technology, land masses, and a good portion of the population, though society is now flourishing on it's three "campuses," each of which have slightly different cultures and seem to prize different virtues. I liked getting the snippets about the world and how it functioned, as well as getting to know the names for the animals of the world (some of them are familiar, most are variations on what we would know, such as the "toothed whale"). I look forward to learning more about the world in book 2.

The book is pretty evenly split between E. and Henerey's correspondence and Sophy and Vyerin's, leaning more toward Sophy and Vyerin's. I liked seeing the two sets of relationships grow, with E. and Henerey becoming romantic while Sophy and Vy become friends and help each other heal from the loss of their siblings. I also enjoyed seeing how each group put the puzzle pieces together and the ways in with Vy and Sophy are able to add some additional context both to the mystery as well as to their siblings' lives.

To start with, E. is afflicted with a "Malady of the Brain" with makes her extremely anxious and gives her OCD-like tendencies and thoughts (i.e., she repeatedly checks portholes and airlocks to ensure the Deep House is secure, feeling as though the house will spring a leak and kill her otherwise; she also has major intrusive thoughts), and ensures that she has spent most of her adult life within the confines of the Deep House. Despite her anxiety, she pens the letter to Henerey that gets their relationship, and the mystery, started. E. is remarkably inquisitive and seems to have a broad depth of knowledge in multiple subjects, not least ocean life and fantasy novels (two things she and Henerey bond over). I enjoyed getting tidbits about her childhood and seeing her open up to Henerey and their shared intellectual pursuits.

Henerey comes across as a mix of level-headed and endearingly enthusiastic (and nervous). He takes E. seriously from the get-go and the two are intellectual matches as they talk over the ocean, life, and novels. It's clear that Henerey is excited to have made a friend and I liked how much he cared about E.'s interests and opinions. I do feel that we didn't get to know him as well as some of the other characters, so I would like more insight into Henerey if possible in book 2 (Vyerin will def be in it, so hopefully he can provide more insight).

Speaking of, Vyerin felt very realistic to me. He still clearly misses his brother and is grieving his loss, even a year out from when it occurred. This has prevented him from doing much reading into Henerey's personal affects, but as he and Sophy converse via letter, he's able to reconnect with his brother through those letters and begin to both heal and become invigorated for the mystery central to the novel. While Vy seems more 'stuck' in the grief cycle as compared to Sophy (not to say Sophy isn't grieving still too), he's also able to be humorous at times and I enjoyed his quips, as well as the moments when he revealed more about his husband and children.

Sophy seems to have moved a step or two further in the grieving process than Vy, but she too still deeply misses her sister. She comes across as very determined, and even though she isn't in the career position she was in when E. died, she's still very academic in nature and approaches things in a very systematic and logical manner. I particularly enjoyed Sophy's letters because they gave insight not just into the E. and Henerey affair, but also into the Ridge Expedition, which was a major scientific expedition Sophy was on when the whole thing with E-H was going down. The expedition was alluded to have ended abruptly and to have returned few results, but imo it's clear from the get-go that the mission somehow ties in with what happened to E. and Henerey as well as into the book's central mystery.

Overall I greatly enjoyed this book and found myself immersed in the characters and the world. It's definitely slow paced but I think it works for the story and the narrative style. I absolutely love the epistolary nature of the story and the way both the story and the mystery unfolded in dual 'timelines.' I'm greatly looking forward to the sequel!

[blueskipper-photography]

Lüneburg (Town Centre) ©2024 blueskipper

Another rainy day

In the North

Feeding the birds

Makes me smile

©2024 blueskipper

[saltavista]

[emly-seppele]

[undergroundoracle]

Explore a fallen fantasy crystalpunk setting that's one part Treasure Planet, one part Water World!

Harrow the Blighted Plane is live on Kickstarter and includes everything that you need to play in one book. Never played the Cypher System? Learn how to play in Harrow!

Pledge today and you'll unlock the early access version of Harrow: The Blighted Plane, which includes everything that you need to start playing the moment our campaign wraps, including creatures, cyphers and artifacts, a Cypher Short, and a full starting adventure!

Check out our Kickstarter here!

[itsnoahgarcia]

Sparkling Water Magic: When Holographic Meets Nature ✨💧

[shoreline-system]

Really urging you to try and unpack the capitalist and ableist ideas of doing enough to justify your existence actually.

Like, yes, we live in an unfair system where you need to afford to live. On a practical level, that is the situation many people find themselves in.

But fundamentally, you don't have to earn the right to exist. You have nothing to prove to anyone before you're allowed to exist in this world guilt-free. Your right to life does not depend on your productivity or you "living up to your potential", it is fundamental and unchangeable. You deserve to be here.

Don't let the guilt of falling short of some arbitrary and ever-changing (and likely unobtainable) goal wear you down. You have nothing to prove, and you deserve to be here.

[aidigitalfun]

Pink Undine: Re

[jaymyfaie]

Me and flowers 🤷🌸😅

[whimsical-seafarers]

[trash-monkey]

The World Of Water (Rewrite)

A blazing sun sits in the middle of the blue sky without a cloud in sight while the endless void of water below crosses all sides of the horizon. A large boat sits alone on top of the water, made up of two sail boats in the style of a trimaran boat without the middle hull. It's hold together by metal poles and strong nets, in the middle of these boats is a pole that connects to each boat which holds the large sail and another pole that crosses under it has the turning system for the sail at the back.The empty spaces has strong nets so it's easy to walk to each side of this large boat, once inside the back holds a bedroom while the small room on the right is a bathroom and the large room on the left is a storage while the front is a small living room.

Suddenly a large wet hand grabbed a railing, one of many on the side of the large boat while the other hand quickly throw a bag made from nets onto the boats floor before grabbing a railing and pull it's person onto the boat. A large man with (H/C) shoulder length hair and (E/C) eyes sits on the boats floor only wearing black faded to gray pants that fits him perfectly as it have some holes down the legs while letting the water on his skin dry up in the blazing heat of mid day. Once rested and semi-dry he started looking through what he have brought up with him in his net bag, pulling out old rusted things but hopefully would be good for trading and put the bag inside the cabin he's sitting in front of once he had a look at everything. With swiftness he pulls a lever on his way to the other side, pulling another lever in the same spot as the first one and watch as both anchors are pulled up before turning the handles on the turning system for the large sail letting it catch the wind when the sail turned causing the large boat to speed across the water despite the large size of the boat.

The large man looks out onto the horizon through a old rusted binoculars seeing nothing until something catches his eye, pieces of boards float around with other things.

"Somkers" The man growled to himself as he views the rickage of the another boat, Somkers are like scavengers. Some of them ride on small boats powered by machines while other ride on lager boats with large fans on the back and the only warning you get is the loud noise from their boats to alert you, once they see you just hope your boat is fast enough to get away unless you have a death wish. He continues looking around making sure the Somkers are long gone but something unexpected popes up in his lens, two people floating on a piece of board. How they survive the Somkers or Why did they let them live? Somkers don't care who you are, woman, child, slave, or man, they'll kill you no matter what. With hesitation the man sail the boat towards them and once he's right next to them he quickly drops both anchors stoping the boat from moving any farther. The man quickly notice both are unconscious and barely hanging onto the board, he quickly grab them with gentle hands before laying them on the net for the sun to warm and dry them. With speed the man pulled the anchors up while keeping a eye out on the horizon until both anchors slam into place, he turns the sail to caught the wind and before long they're speeding across the water.

By the time I consider us safe and stopping the boat the Sun seats closer to the horizon, with a relief sigh I hit a secret lever to pull my sail down before I sit down against it before glancing at the two I have rescued. Both male with short hair but one is blood red while the other is sun yellow and the only piece of clothing they have on are black skirts that lays around a few inches away from their knees but what really catches my eye is the metal sitting on leather with a large ring in the front while a lock perch on the back that rest on each of their necks, slave collars and by the way they're dressed and the few scars I can see their master wasn't kind. An hour or two later night falls along with the temperature so I carefully moved the two into the room on the opposite side of mine and cover them with the large but thin pieces of clothes I had stored away on this side of my boat.

An hour after the first rays of sun I have already boiled water to drink and started to grill the fish I have caught earlier which caused the two I have saved to finally wake up with growling stomachs at the smell of cooked fish but they quickly pushed their hunger away when they noticed they're in a unknown place, carefully the yellow one peeks out from the hull as the red one is a step behind him. He looks around to see their on a large boat before his eyes lands on my back which is facing them and pulls away from the door to whispered to his friend. Since I have better hearing then most people do I can hear them talking but can't tell what their saying.

"You two going to come out and eat?" I asked as I hold out some cooked meat without looking while they jumped at my rough voice and surprised that I know that their awake, the yellow one peeks out of the hull again to see me holding cooked fish towards them without looking. Quickly he snatch the meat from the hand and returns to his friend where he rips the meat into two pieces for them both after he gives it a sniff to make sure I didn't do anything to the meat before eating it.

"I found you two drifting in the water with what was left of your boat, Smokers?" I asked while holding out more meat to them but before the yellow could grab it I pulled it just out of his reach, he narrow his eyes at me as he moves closer and reach for the meat again but I quickly pull the meat away once again before pointing the seats opposite of me.

"Sit, you'll get more." The yellow one glance between me and where I have pointed at as he thinks, quickly he sits with a leg under him but sits in a way I can't see up his short skirt as he thinks I'm a lot larger up close then he thought and I hand him the piece of meat. He waves over the redhead before taking a large bite out of the fish meat, with hesitation the redhead sit snuggly to his yellow friend side and eating in a slower rate then his friend when I hand him his own piece of cooked fish meat.

"Names." I demand after their shock wears off when I hand them cups of drinkable water, I throw more meat onto the grill that's sits between all three of us as the yellow one glances around before finally answering my question.

"Naruto" He shoves more meat into his mouth after in nervousness then in hungry as he already eat a few mouth fulls.

"Gaara" The redhead specks softly although his voice is deeper them his friends voice as he continues to slowly eat.

"(Y/N)" I respond as I hold out more cooked fish meat which Gaara takes as he just finished his first piece but since Naruto had already eaten two he denys the piece I hold out to him.

"Clothes" I gesture to the large net bag filled with clothes I have collected over time which I had placed onto the twin sized bed of the left boat from where the two had woken up early and after I lead to the two back into to show them the clothes, I leave the two to change in peace as the two watch feeling uncomfortable with this stranger's kindness.

"What is he going to do with us?" Gaara asked Naruto slightly scared and worried about their lives.

"If he wanted to do something bad he wouldn't have clothed, feed, and even given us precious hydro." Naruto whispered back knowing if people wanted something from them they wouldn't be nice about it but this man, a complete stranger although strange himself is treating them like normal people despite the visible slave collars around their necks. Naruto just shakes his head and started looking through the clothes before he picks a light blue skirt that slightly touches the ground and sits comfortable around his low waist as the fabric is double so he doesn't have to wear anything under it but what caught his attention is the asymmetric design as the skirt has a wrap around style so it doesn't matter what size he is it'll fit, Gaara finds another one but in the same color as his hair and both decided to wear them instead of their shorter thin ones.

"Thank you for saving our lives." Naruto said as him and Gaara retake their seat across from me on the right of the boat with Gaara silently following behind him, I just give him a nod in return.

"You'll have to wear your collars for a while longer until most people know you're with me so Slavers won't try to grab you again, if someone asks why you are with me and not your previous master just say that I have traded something precious for you two." They both nod understanding my reasoning for keeping the collars on.

"His feet!" Gaara hissed into Naruto's ear at the sight of my wedded feet.

"It doesn't matter he still saved our lives instead of leaving us in the water to die." Naruto quickly hissed back scolding Gaara for his tone seeing that I'm a kind man but everyone has their limits, Gaara nods lowly in apology. The two watch as I quickly put out the first of the small grill before skillfully pulling up the two anchors and popping the sail open in surprising speed, wind blows greatly as the large boat flys across the water as the light wind pushes us forward. Gaara and Naruto moved to sit on the strong net as I stand at the steering, the two feels the air of the warming morning again against their face as they feel finally like their free.

_______________________________________________

[thegreatbobbo]