#high salt marsh | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chantsdemarins · 2 months

Text

🏰Breath of the Æsir {Loki X Fem.Reader} Chapter 3: Stories Cannot Burn or Disappear

I am so sorry these chapters are taking me so long. I haven't been the same since Covid! I hope the quality is still good...Thank you for joining my crazy medieval AU Loki fever dream era.

There is a bit of Easter and eclipse magic wound up in this chapter!

Summary: Loki isn't the only one who thinks you are more than a human woman, which buys you time while you figure out how to keep your manor and tenants safe. However, the challenge of nursing a debilitated, power-stripped god adds a layer of complexity to your already daunting task, clouding your judgment when clarity is most needed.

Note to Reader: Yes, Hozier is now a character, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you 😭 But which character will he be? Guess and comment!

Passion and Romance Meter: Nothing explicit yet but hopefully you feel it boiling.

I hope these people don't mind being tagged! I thought you might want to be tagged! Please let me know if you don't want the tag or if you want to be tagged. Also comments and reblogs are healing and joyous for me!

@arcielee @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @thomase1 @mcufan72 @caffiend-queen @fictive-sl0th @muddyorbsblr @anukulee @mischief2sarawr @mochie85 @sailorholly @lokisgoodgirl @shambelle97 @lokischambermaid @eleniblue @smolvenger @wheredafandomat @hiroyukinasukawa @meowmeow-motherfucker @latent-thoughts @buttercupcookies-blog @lcolumbia1988 @soulpiercing @wolfsmom1 @mysticmarvelfan

@holdmytesseract @superficialdomina @scrumptious-finicky-illusion @mjsthrillernp @arcielee @poetic-fiasco @gruftiela @thegodofnotknowing @thedistractedagglomeration @tallseaweed

@dangertoozmanykids101 @jennyggggrrr

The clay soil in your husband’s land hadn’t fully absorbed the blood of the Christian god. Not yet at least. The claustrophobic land was hemmed by bogs and marshes, lowlands with the familiar wooden gods made from branches poking out of the muddy banks. The tides to the east would fill the saturated earth till she could take no more before becoming a lake. This system of pooling respiration created a natural barrier for the people. The stillness of the water meant you didn’t stop for long, just enough time to plant your wooden god or light a beeswax candle, burn some leaves as an offering, and then find fast footing across the rickety log bridges built by people no one could remember.

In spring, a carpet of blue wood betony would appear. The town's folk's talk led you to forage it, keeping the blossoms and stems in dark Roman glass, tucked on the kitchen shelf next to the salt. Your husband never noticed your collection, or if he did, he never mentioned it as anything particular or strange. It was a relief to find plants that grew elsewhere, unlike the state of the manor land — high on a hill, flanked by rocky, sandy soil. Collecting plants often made you wonder if Christ might rise from the bogs. You'd just have to wait and see, you supposed, imagining Christ emerging naked from the thick peaty waters, stray herbs clinging to his torso.

Perhaps when Loki showed up, bleeding from his stomach, you'd envisioned something like that before. That desert man had a different name, Jesus of Nazareth. You blushed at the thought of any man, holy or common.

Yet, you didn't blush much while sewing Loki back up. Stitches plunged down his torso into places you'd only seen hinted at on the marble body of Jupiter in Eboracum. Your confident needlework proved itself. If your cheeks reddened, it wasn't from embarrassment but from lack of oxygen, struggling to breathe. Saving a life required haste, much different from the crafts of passing time.

The day the Northmen came you had been already struggling to breathe, you’d lost your air completely and found Loki’s form in front of you when your eyes finally opened again. His hair like ash from the hearth, his eyes the most peculiar color of blue, much like the betony in your waiting Roman jars. Just where had you gone when you’d lost your air? Loki had refused to confront the Danes, refused to fight them. He had handed you back his weapon, leaving you to confront the invaders yourself.

After all, you became a manor wife because your origins had burned in your village's fire, but not in the stories that followed. Stories cannot burn or disappear, especially when people fleeing tell them to the right people in the countryside. Your husband's family had heard your father's tales and believed him. Your hand in marriage was worth more than any dowry. It was all the more disappointing when you couldn't produce an heir or embroidery, and the manor lands remained sandy, rocky, and haunted. You hadn't known a husband should stay close or lie with his wife until Elinor finally told you. Your confidence to heal a stranger, to meet the Northmen at their boat, came from your father. He told you who you were, and like the manor people, you believed him — even if you didn't understand what you were.

The sky had darkened as you came to the mahogany longship anchored next to the wind-ravaged cliffs. You knew to avert your eyes from the mast, the Northern dragon guardian was designed to kill folk such as you. A provocation to your ancestors. There was confusion at their camp, what seemed like hundreds of men were pointing above and shaking their heads. A seer had cast the runes, and the chieftain seemed to not like what the seer had spoken. The rugged man looked up at the sky once more and sent what looked like an envoy to you. He blamed the Norns and you in yet another language you didn’t understand. He could not kill you because it would only curse them more.

Stunned, your trembling hands clutched Loki's blade in disbelief. You ran beneath the still darkening sky, which seemed poised for rain, though no clouds were visible. Looking up, you saw something unimaginable. A planet had fully eclipsed the sun. Your people knew of these events, but you had not witnessed one yourself. As you ran you wondered if the land's spirits had cast a powerful enough curse to scare the Northmen.

Returning home, you found only Loki in the makeshift courtyard, fever-ridden, slumped over the fence. Your heart sank, fearing he was actually dead this time. But the breath of the Æsir still moved through him, you could see his chest moving as you approached.

The village was silent, its people hiding. The only sound was the wind stirring the grain fields and the oak leaves in a dry, papery rhythm. Loki beckoned you inside but he was barely able to move to the porch, he was already worried you’d absorbed too much of the darkness. You fell into his arms, wincing from the feel of his fevered skin through your shift. Significantly taller, Loki's limbs resembled a freshly felled hawthorn. You dragged him closer to the front door, you both were exhausted in the strange day of night.

Your efforts paused for a moment, you readjusted your grip on the stranger. "Saturn is passing over the sun, an eclipse," Loki murmured, breaths faint and labored. How did he know this? Such knowledge was native only to your people. Still reeling from scaring off the Danes, you now faced an eclipse. Loki speculated on the Northmen's possible interpretation of the event. Since much of their knowledge came from his world, he felt he knew exactly what they must have felt seeing the sky darken as you approached.

"They saw the eclipse as a sign of your power. They recognize planetary transits. As you approached them, Saturn crossed the sun's path, a coincidence perhaps in your favor," Loki continued. "But they'll return, and we need to be ready," he cautioned, aware of your mutual defenselessness. He felt responsible for the deaths across these isles, seeking balance, an unfamiliar concept.

You had wanted him to stay long enough to know who he was but now it appeared like he wasn't well enough to be able to leave, even if that is what you both wanted. The truth was, part of you didn't want him to go at all. There was something about him. He knew some of the old ways and where ever he had come from, you suspected again, he had once held a high status.

Loki also continued to contemplate your shared fates. Did the Norns truly allow for this meeting between you as part of the path of the raven’s wingspan, his destiny as a god with no power. He dared to speak to you some of his true thoughts. He felt he owed you some kind of explanation for his resistance to fighting on your behalf.

“Lady, I wish I could help you but as you see I am unwell from my wounds. When I heal, I would like to help you defend your home as part of my thanks, I will find a way to do that does not involve fighting. We have the cosmos on our side it seems, so perhaps there is more luck for our coming together. This is of course if you will continue to have me.”

His pale face seemed even more ghastly, and he laid his body on the porch in a heap, looking very similar to how you first found him. You felt a tenderness stir. You’d felt it for him when you were saving him but now it was tinged with worry for both of your lives and everyone who depended on you.

“Loki I don't want to heal you twice, but it seems this is my fate. Let’s see what you have within you still and if your Gods are listening. I expect you will tell me why you refuse to fight or why you cannot. You owe me the truth. There is much you are not saying.”

He knew he would not be able to hide himself from you as you seemed unable to hide yourself from him. The circumstances unfolding seemed like the actions of reverse spells, instead of concealing they were revealing who you both were. This was vexing to you both.

Despite his sincere words to you, Loki was not sure this troubled land was his final destination. He wondered if he should try and leave as soon as he was able. He was speaking with two tongues. Perhaps he should venture south, go to the Midgard places where panther Gods and pyramids covered in gold existed. Those people were said to do the bidding of the gods with even more ferocity than the Northmen.

Instead, he was sick with fever and stuck with a mysterious, beautiful, and angry woman, whose husband could return at any moment and kill him for what it looked like was happening, even in the middle of a possible invasion. Suddenly his reverie broke as you lifted his shirt to inspect his wound. Your worry for his fever could wait no longer.

"Lady," he said as he batted your hand away.

You protested back, “I have seen you already, why would you be shy now stranger? I need to check your wound, you are feverish,” you continued to pull up his shirt. His gash had indeed become weeping and likely the source of his fever. Whether you liked it or not, you were healing him once again it seemed.

“Wood betony, that is what you need, you are lucky I have some. I’ll see to it Elinor makes you a poultice, and then I am putting you in one of the downstairs bedrooms.” Your eyes were worried even if your words were not. Loki placed his weakened hand on your shoulder, and spoke solemnly, “You know, we need to find your husband.”

You turned your face from him, you didn’t want Loki to notice even the smallest bit of feeling.

“Of course, that is a good idea, this is his manor and his people after all,” you replied. “We can leave when the fever breaks and you can walk without me carrying half your weight,” there was the slightest tinge of playfulness in your words to your surprise. You hoped he did not notice.

As the day was moving into evening, the villagers whispered their suspicions about the stranger you aided. The darkened sky had unsettled them as much as the Northmen. Loki was right, without your husband the manor would devolve into chaos and this would leave the village even more vulnerable.

You watched Loki slowly drag his body to the downstairs bedroom and close the thick doors behind him before you had the chance to redirect him or wish him a good night. You thought better to tell him that he had gone into your husband’s bedroom not the servant’s quarters you had intended for him to rest.

You felt your stomach twist in knots. If your husband came home tonight the wrong impression you worried you would make, would surely be inevitable. You would have to go and move Loki once you were done with your chores. A prospect that left you even more anxious.

Finally, when everyone had gone to sleep and Elinor had gone to her quarters, you stood alone in the empty house contemplating what you should do next. Sleep seemed an impossibility. The eclipse had only been five minutes, but it disturbed the entire day. Now it was nearly midnight and it felt like morning. All time had shifted somehow. Loki sleeping in your husband's bedroom loomed in your head.

To quiet your thoughts you found yourself in the kitchen, sometimes cooking felt relaxing even if you were not good at it. Instead tonight you eyed the row of bottles on your shelf. There was something else calling to you. You grabbed a jar of mistletoe berries, and held them in your hands. Their color was startling.

Suddenly you busying yourself muddling them with the mortar and pestle. If there was a recipe to follow you did not know it, you pulled a few more bottles off the shelf and added the ingredients. Mullein leaves and blackberry.

Pausing for a moment you felt that Loki’s knife was still around your body, you had placed it in a leather holder diagonally across your chest, and forgotten it was there. The knife passed over your breasts and you couldn’t help but touch the length of it.

You hadn't the time to have paid much attention to it before. You noticed the unusual, rich craftsmanship. The inlay was extraordinary. Garnets and chrysoprase. You then gently pulled it out of the holder and carefully pricked your finger with the impossibly sharp tip. This action surprised you.

You inhaled deeply. Crimson blood rolled down your finger and into the stone mixing bowl. You placed your still bleeding fingertip into your mouth hoping to quickly stem the bleeding, but the knife had been too sharp, or you cut yourself too deep.

Quickly, you sucked the wound, blood filling your mouth. You spat the excess into the bowl and placed it on the windowsill, intuitively sensing it needed the moonlight. Just then you heard a deep voice behind you. You were frozen in place, unable to turn around. It was Loki.

"I had no idea you were a seer, you could have told me that sooner and it would have cleared things up," his words rich with sleep and something else.

When you finally turned around you saw he was only wearing his leather trousers and the poultice. Your heart produced a wild, unfamiliar beat, and you steadied yourself against the kitchen table. You weren't a seer, but you could not explain what you were just doing or what you were now feeling.

Before you could stop him, Loki took your mixture from the sill and drank it. "My gods what have you done?" the startled words fell out of your mouth as he placed the now empty bowl back into your hands.

57 notes · View notes

merovingian-marvels · 1 month

Text

Terp/Thorp/Wierde/Warft/Værft

Most commonly known as “Terp”, by origin a Frisian word, Terps are actually known in a few places. Hang on tight, this is a long one.

The water rich lands of Dutch provinces Zeeland/Frisia (Terp) and Groningen (Wierde) - German regions Nordfriesland and Ostfriesland (Warft) and southern Denmark (Wærft) were in need of such constructions for basic quality of life.

Because the tides could freely enter the lower lands beyond the shoreline, life was to be lived intermittently. When the land was dry, sheep could graze the salt marsh. When water rose, people would retreat to the Terp.

A Terp can be made up out of a single church or farm/house to an entire small village. Concentrations of small Terps making up a village also exist. They are often surrounded by a salt marsh rampart (Kwelderwal).

Terps were made by plaggen. The top of sandy soils was taken out in little cubes, including the vegetation. The plag was then dried and compacted and stacked on top of each other, which causes an artificial hill allowing to build on.

Terp is also the Old-Frisian word which originates the Dutch word for village. Frisian culture allowed to spread because of their specialization in sheep’s wool. With most agricultural crops not being suited for salt marshes, and with the land flooded half of the day, lots of time was spent in producing high quality and highly sought after wool. This made the Frisians and especially the Terp people very rich, as seen in treasures, burials and clerical art.

Lots of Terps have been destroyed for peat mining or lost after abandonment.

Image above: Hogebeintum (Hegebeintum (Frisian), formerly known as Westerbintheim).

The largest known Terp in the Netherlands and Germany with 8,80 m above sea level.

Central is the church, on the right the historic village, the sheep pastures during floods and the encircling salt march rampart. Everything outside the rampart used to flood.

36 notes · View notes

averyqueerhalloween · 8 months

Text

Horror & Thriller Books with Queer characters: 🏳️‍🌈🎃

The Girls Are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Ace Of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand

Burn Down, Rise Up by Vincent Tirado

Interview With The Vampire by Anne Rice

The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling

Murder Takes The High Road by Josh Lanyon

A Dowry Of Blood by S.T Gibson

The Taking Of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglass

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Catherine House by Elizabeth Thomas

Manhunt by Gretchen Felcker-Martin

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

A Lesson In Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Diviners by Libba Bray

Her Body And Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado

The Route Of Ice And Salt by José Luis Zárate

The Dead And The Dark by Courtney Gould

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

Queen Of Teeth by Hailey Piper

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

The Cabin At The End Of The World by Paul Tremblay

It Came From The Closet by Various Authors

House Of Hunger by Alexis Henderson

What Moves The Dead by Ursula Vernon

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

Night Of The Living Queers by Various Authors

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe

Graveyard Of Lost Children by Katrina Monroe

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters

Hell Followed With Us by Andrew White

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew White

Dead Flip by Sara Farizan

The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya Macgregor

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca

Everything The Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

Into The Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht

White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

The Promise of Lost Things by Helena Dunbar

Prelude For Lost Things by Helena Dunbar

My Dear Henry by Kalynn Bayron

All The White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

As I Descended by Robin Talley

This Is Where We Talk Things Out by Caitlin Marceau

58 notes · View notes

b000mbayah · 1 year

Text

Mafia!Itzy reaction to their S/O being an undercover cop

°•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆° .*ᴏꜰꜰɪᴄᴇʀ?*. °★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•°

Requested: No

Wordcount: 2,112

Warnings: Angst, crying, being drunk, heartbreak, guns, murder, depression, mentions of helf harm? (Yeji and the mirror?)

°•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆° .*ᴏꜰꜰɪᴄᴇʀ?*. °★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•°

Yeji

They say that sadness hides behind anger, yet anger never comes unless in self defence. So, naturally speaking, Yeji blames her heartache on the possibility of her willingness to cry and feel such pain.

She'd never be able to admit she was gullible, that she was misled by the desires of her heart that have led to her now sorrow. But no matter how much she tried to ignore it, she was human, and humans are feeble and prone to emotions, no matter how deep or shallow.

Everything is broken.

It was evident in the way her eyes pricked with bludgeoned tears, credited to the fact that she was drunk. The salt marsh that formed by her eyelashes only seemed to pool, never falling until they did.

It was instant, how slipstreams formed at the cost of her dignity, watching herself in her bathroom mirror with self hatred.

With a shaky hand, the sinks taps turned, and down came the spout of chilly water. Her fingers ran through the rush of liquid before she brung her palms to meet, covering her face with the cooling substance.

It stung, the freezing of the water upon her face, mixing with the salts of her tears as she continued to make eye contact with herself- in the bathroom mirror.

Everything is broken.

How had she let herself slip? How could someone of such mainstream importance let herself slip at the blame of someone inferior… except not really.

You were her first love, the person she valued most after everything in her life hit the fan. She let you into her mind, her house, her heart. Yeji had let you see her strongest suits and her weakest suits, her vulnerabilities, and secrets.

And this was how you repaid her after everything she supposedly did for you?

You made her second guess everything. Was your first encounter accidental? Was your first date a plan? Was your relationship a lie?

Was it all for your benefit? For your job? Was none of it for the sole purpose of just being happy… together?

She's questioned many things in her life, but your relationship? She hasn't even inquired it a single time, and never has she thought she needed to until now- now that she's slumped over the sink, hands cold from water as they grip the pale porcelain basin, her knuckles heaving white.

Everything is broken.

She can't remember the last time she felt this way, for anything or anyone. She thought she was immune to raw emotion, that she could never be affected by the likes of vulnerability like this.

Yet, you seize to prove her wrong, over and over again- just like the first time you met. You proved her wrong about friends, about love, about feelings, and now you prove her wrong about her dull ache of heartbreak.

But as she looks at herself in the mirror- the bathroom mirror- recalling the information on your position as a high ranking officer of the law, something she avoids as often as possible, she can't help but feel like she's done it to herself.

All hatred in her body is altered. It's tarnished by the fact that she still loves you, and she hates that she still does. Because after everything you've done… her heart still beats for you.

Her eyes quiver, her hands twitch, and her jaw clenches as she stares in the mirror- your bathroom mirror.

But then she punches it.

And everything was broken again.

Lia

Emotions have a tendency to slice the veins on our hearts, leaving a firm, frosty numbness of iced scabs that only linger for further decades to come.

Lia never planned to find love.

Lia never wanted to find love.

Lia never wanted to be in love.

But that wasn't how the world worked, and she knew that from the instant she first saw you. From your first business casual handshake to your first shared laugh, to your first real date, and to your first "sleepover," Lia knew she loved you.

It wasn't on her agenda, to fall in love with someone so sweet… so cute… so perfect- but then again, what could she expect in return for this blissful experience?

Surely a nice spice of betrayal was enough…

So, sitting alone in her office during after hours, there was a particular dun that seemed to only drape around her- reflecting that of her mood.

Shadows cascaded along the fine of her ruffled hair, her face hidden by the usually silk organ atop of her scalp. But then she moved for what felt like the first time in years, her hair stumbling away from the isolated features that make up her frightful face, and it was obvious she had been crying.

Golden glazed tears seemed to drift down the half of her cheeks, messing with the pinkened state of the plush and ample flesh. It drizzled down her chin and dribbled down her blemished jaw.

She knew what she looked like, and she honestly couldn't care less about her reputation at the moment as she sobbed above your file, pages of your personal life scattered like a shattered visage, just twice as painful.

She knew she shouldn't have fallen in love to begin with, but it was just too tempting, and she more than happily took the bait without much consideration.

And now she must do the only thing she can do in this situation. You hold all the power. It would be almost stupid of her to act on anything else. She dismissed half her team for the week in case of a raid, and she quite honestly wasn't feeling all too great about herself.

She still loved you. That's something she could never change- she still held your promise ring after all, but she'd never forget the pain you've shunned upon her.

All she can do is wait… wait…?

Wait.

Ryujin

The irony of her situation.

Ryujin has explained on several occasions just how much she despises the police and their entire force team. She loathes the idea of social justice and balance between all people who deserve it because, quite frankly, no one deserves it.

She's plotted and followed several attacks on every police station within the area. She has completely left some in ruins, with the objective to 'scare' the police officers out of their occupations. While others were left with minimal damage, but left empty-handed with no source of weaponry or defence.

Ryujin thought long and hard about weakening the police force, but had she ever stopped to think about your strange hobbies and possessions, maybe it wouldn't have led to her inevitable downfall.

Ryujin was prepped, back against a pillar inside of the police station. She was here to reclaim some of her men who were taken into custody a few weeks back.

Already, upon entering, a blaze of gunshots had lit up the station. Bullets left a crackling vibration lingering in the air, and the shouts and cries of people both on her and the opposing team struck her with determination.

However, that determination was faltered upon the sight of a photo plastered on the wall she was facing. It was of six or seven different officers, each one varying in height, age, race, gender. But none of that mattered. What really mattered was the soft face of her current lover, central with a grin that reached their eyes.

Spitting, she scowled. You were a cop, an officer of the law, a barrier between her and the freedom she's been wanting her entire life. But most importantly, you were the reason for her happiness and a safe haven she could come home to and be herself with.

Her gun was now held with an iron grasp, her knuckles turning an impressive whale bone white as she began to shake out of what? It would be too simple to say hatred, to say love, especially when Ryujins emotions were far more complex than something to be disregarded on a surface level viewpoint.

She felt many things, and now she knows what she must do right now.

Ryujin knows she needs to hurry this up, to get out as fast as possible. She knows she needs to find you, to confirm these suspects. Even though they are clear and blinding, she still hangs onto that small ledge of hope that you aren't what everything is pointing to.

For her sake, and for yours.

Chaeryeong

Your name was etched onto her skin, staining the organ with your mark- something she once believed was love. And maybe she still does, maybe she still loves you, but fuck does it feel like a thousand agonies burning up inside.

She hadn't quite experienced a heartbreak yet, and so that made this all that much worse. The pain intensified tenfold- and so were the insecurities that grew within her unusually large heart.

For someone with unmatched power on the playing field of guns and knives, she seemed to be rather defeatable in the confines of her shambled emotions.

She never would've guessed your profession to be in the police force. You've only ever told her fractions of your occupation before and that you know how to handle a "bad guy" if need be, but nothing more than that.

The signs were obvious- you kept a gun in your bedside table, a pair of well managed handcuffs too- but she just assumed they were for self-defense.

She slumps deeper into the coldness of her bed, sheets hang with the lingering scent of your shampoo and perfume. It was intoxicating, dangerous to her mind and heart. However, despite how much you've hurt her, she knows there's still this tiny part of her that wants you, and bad.

She misses your presence, your voice, your screams and cries, your laughs, and giggles… She misses you.

Chaeryeong knows deep inside that this is wrong, to be in love with someone who could easily tarnish her perfectly polished reputation with the softness of a word.

However, you taught her better than to think like that- ironically. You taught her not to feel so down. You taught her about the ways of her emotions. And now she knows better than almost anyone else that emotions can't be controlled or changed, that she must embrace them with all her might.

But the more she thinks about embracing her emotions, the more it feels like she's leaning on you. She's stuck, stuck both in great love and great pain.

Because it feels like no matter what she does, she'll be suffering, suffering with the scent of you on her bedsheets.

Yuna

Yuna is more than flesh and bones, the brain and the broad- she's everything she's built herself up to become. Yuna is someone of self-worth, mainstream importance, and unrelenting power. So, why did she feel so defenceless, even while standing with a mass of bodyguards backstage?

Simple.

Because you made her feel this way.

Ever since her second in command brung you to her office, handcuffed and gagged with a sack over your head, she had felt outdone and made to feel used.

You were using her for data, data of all sorts. She had found both quantitative and qualitative data on your personal laptop and diary. You had compared secondary research on her with your own and had a few bulletin boards pinned and stringed with exit and entry points to her office- a space she calls her second home.

You were created to bring her down- as she saw it- and as much as she tried to not let it affect her, you both know it did.

But, for the sake of her name and title, she hid it behind a perfected mask. Her face often hardened like stone, muscles locked into a particularly biassed pattern, eyes set dead straight with a burning passion hiding behind the dun of her foresight.

She was standing strictly on the sideline, hands clasped into one firm ball at her front as she steadied her breathing.

She had been thinking of you again- all of you- and it was driving her to the wall. Yuna wanted nothing more than to retreat back home and to cry until she felt numb, like she had done all those days ago. But she knows she has her own life, one to uphold without you in the picture.

She knows it'll take time to heal. The process is never nice- always messy, always painful- but she knows she'll have to push through it.

Though, there is that one voice in the back of her mind and heart, the one voice that's always nagging- always begging.

Just one more try…?

75 notes · View notes

teratocrat · 10 months

Text

A single yellow dwarf, unremarkable, of about 1.0218 solar masses. And in its corona, dancing aurora-dragons, ribbons and feathers of nine-colored light, singing and reciting poetry to each other and hitching freezing rides on the asteroids and comets that swing close enough to the star to leap out onto.

One small, dense planet, frosted over with incandescent stormclouds that snow lead flakes onto the slopes of volcanoes whose calderas are choked with galena coral reefs, the bones of colonies of radiation-tolerant extremophilic microorganisms, and where sulfur-swamps coat the lazy tideless beaches of the planet's only ocean, stirred and tilled by people like lanky bundles of black ironstraw, who heap their storehouses high with xanthous dried fusegrass.

One larger, much cooler planet, the calcite gleam of its moon hidden from the surface much of the time by cloudcover. warm, shallow, mildly acidic seas of lavender mucous, tentative marshes of weeping fuschia ferns, translucent lapine blobs with probing antennae that could be eyes or ears or questing tongues, and in the middle of the deepest ocean, a massive gelatinous thing, a superorganism like a rose with its stem plunging down into the volcanic baths of an oceanic rift, a mind from whom all other minds on this planet came and to which they occasionally return, eager to share their stories.

One rocky planet, bitterly cold and with the merest wisps of atmosphere clinging to it. Lifeless, all its water burned off it by baleful solar glare, the vast horizon-spanning saltpan seafloors bone-bare under the violet sky, and its moon hanging above like a clenched fist of black basalt.

An asteroid belt, scattered diamond motes of ice and stone and clay and metals, with three dwarf planets in its embrace, and the largest of them bearing a banner of silver and midnight, a unicorn guarding some alien tree.

A planet one might almost mistake for Earth, for all its snake-necked tortoise-camels and gold-feathered tigermen, for all its gleaming pentagonal ziggurats of diamond and steel, its three space elevators anchored in the emerald forests that girdle the equator, the capital of an interplanetary empire founded at the mouth of an immense river lazily piling hundreds of tons of silt a year into delta marshes, its vast ports berthing wide, flat-bottomed barges hauling iron and salt and sand and cinnabar, barrels of fish and wine and oil and perfumes, tigerman janissaries and scholars and poets and wizards, all tallied and accounted for in the lightning thoughts of supercomputers domesticated by bureaucracy. spaceplanes like silver songbirds or leaping fish ferrying the nobility (who disdain regular shuttle flights from the tips of the space elevators as base transportation for commoners) from the surface of the planet to its moon above, or to any number of gleaming stations in high orbit.

A gas giant, pale as pearl streaked with delicate pink and green pastels, skirted by dozens of captured child-moons, many of them bearing the same unicorn banner, some of them mined for this or that rare earth element, cities buried under the shielding crust of a scant handful, and two of them habitiformed enough to support imperial hunting grounds - managed grasslands or forests full of imported game - and hunting lodges of squat domes and towering spires, mirrored labyrinthine greenhouse-gardens and treasure-vaults of platinum jewelry set with nebula-gems snatched from their condensation-nests in the gas giant's depths.

Another gas giant, the blues and purples of a ripe plum blushing from clouds of midnight-black marbled with gold, icy rings slicing through swirling lunar orbits, merchants and mercenaries and privateers gliding from port to port in their sapphire-hulled ships, out where the empire scrabbles to find purchase. hollowed-out asteroids house cylindrical farms or monasteries of fatalistic leonine faiths or the huddled bodies of wound-down murine clockwork eunuchs, commissioned to advise and amuse some tiger-empress whose phoenix standard had long since faded into obscurity by the time the founder of the unicorn-banner dynasty first rallied soldiers to his cause.

An Earth-sized ball of grey-green ice, glassy smooth surfaces broken up by cryovolcanoes pumping volatiles up from a sooty core to rain down again in miserable pattering drizzles of methane through ammonia blizzards.

An ice giant, the immense azure sphere its inward neighbor might have been were it not for the vagaries of fate as involved in early star system formation, accompanied by seventeen bitterly cold moons whose tides have woven something enormous and ponderous of thought out of the inner sea of supercritical fluids.

a dozen or more dwarf planets of packed stone and ice, swinging through the outer black clouds on vastly elliptical orbits, witnesses to tumbling nickel-iron visitors and alien probes relaying streams of blurry photography and other observations back to some unknown homeworld as they fall endlessly through interstellar space.

71 notes · View notes

aisling-saoirse · 9 months

Text

Tangled High Marsh Grasses - September 17th 2023

#spartina patens #love this species too #the historic source of atlantic salt hay #a historic hay venerated in the romatic art period and also a highly desired cheap resilient farm crop #high marsh is a bit more diverse and typically flooded less frequently #careful walking on it crabs love to hide in the grass #easier to walk on honestly #photographers on tumblr #original phography #nature #njlocal #new jersey #delaware bay #nj #salt marsh

14 notes · View notes

3rdeyeblaque · 1 year

Text

This month in Hoodoo History: The Igbo Freedom Landing March

In May of 1803, 75 Igbo men & women chose freedom in death over a life of hell, spurring one of the largest mass suicides in the history of Maafa.

• In May 1803, a British slave ship called, The Wanderer, captured over a hundred Igbo men/women & other West Afrikan Peoples from present-day Nigeria and taken to Savannah, GA.

In Savannah, they were resold into Slavery to be worked to death on plantations along the Georgia coast. The price for each of their lives? $100. They were forcibly transported onto a ship called, the York that set sail for St. Simon's Island.

• During this voyage from Savannah to St. Simon's Island, 75 Igbo men & women rose up against their captors. They drowned the slavers, took control of the ship - grounding it in the Dunbar Creek.

At some point, the Igbo fled the ship. Led by their High Chief, a subset of the Igbo sang as they marched into a salt marsh of Dunbar Creek. One by one, they returned home in the face of a fate worse than death.

• This event that became known as, the Igbo Freedom Landing March, spawned enormous symbolism & folklore in the Afrikan Peoples and their descendants on this land. Many believe that the Freedom Landing and the nearby salt marshes in Dunbar Creek are haunted by the Spirits of the Igbo Peoples who drowned there. It is heralded as the first recorded Freedom March in U.S. history and has long since been a staple in Gullah-Geechee folklore, as the story of the Igbo Peoples who chose death over Slavery.

• Today, Igbo Landing is a nationally recognized historical site. It is located at Dunbar Creek on St. Simon's Island in Glynn County, GA.

• In September 2002, the Afrikan descendant community of St. Simon's Island, GA held a two-day commemoration of this event, including a procession to the salt marshes along Dunbar Creek where the mass suicide took place. They were represented by 75 Afrikan descendants across the country, Haiti, Brazil, & Nigeria. The attendees consecrated the site and did the collective work to elevate the restless Igbo spirits into healing and peaceful transition.

140 notes · View notes

cypherdecypher · 1 year

Text

Animal of the Day!

American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber)

(Photo by Cornell Lab of Orithology)

Conservation Status- Least Concern

Habitat- Eastern North America; Eastern Central America

Size (Weight/Length)- 3 kg; 1.5 m tall

Diet- Algae; Shrimp; Insects; Mollusks

Cool Facts- It may surprise you to learn that flamingos live in North America. Living in large flocks, these brightly colored birds feed and breed in mass groups. Nests are made out of mud, piled high off the salty marsh, with a single egg perched on top. Some flamingos are more than willing to have a poly relationship, often with a single female and two males. Both dads help to raise the offspring, greatly increasing the chick’s chance of survival. Living in highly salty environments, American flamingos can produce salt boogers that reduce its effect on their kidneys. In addition, they can drink water directly from boiling geysers.

Rating- 12/10 (Thank you, carotenoids.)

#Animal of the day #Animals #Birds #Flamingo #Thursday #January 5 #American flamingo #biology #science #conservation #the more you know

173 notes · View notes

sumerianlanguage · 17 days

Note

hey! i was wondering if you'd be able to translate 'tide' into Sumerian? I'd like to name a character after something in relation to the moon, without directly naming them moon. thanks!! :)

Hello! Unfortunately, as with many other oceanic words, none of my regular sources have an exact word for "tide" as a concept. The Sumerians were a riverine people more than an oceanic one, so there's also paltry evidence of vocabulary around coasts, beaches, etc.

The closest match I can find is aeshtub, which means "April high tide flooding", a time when the high tide would bring salt water to the brackish marshes near the mouth of the Tigris/Euphrates river complex, and fish would enter the marshes to spawn. This phrase literally means "carp (eshtub) water (a)" and is often translated as "carp-flood" in texts like Nanna-Suen's Journey to Nibru and Enki and the World Order. Aeshtub is written 𒀀𒄞 or 𒀀𒄞𒄩 in cuneiform.

The only other word I know is au 𒀀𒅇, which means "high water" as in the high point of a river's seasonal flooding. It appears most often in the set verb phrase auba ngal "to be at its high water". This proverb is A ziggagin pesh hedahul, Idigna auba ngalagin Enlil hedahul, which the ETCSL translates as "The riverbank should rejoice as though there were a flood. Enlil should rejoice as though the Tigris (Idigna) were at high water." I can't find an example in literature of it meaning "high tide" as in an oceanic or moon-induced tide, though.

I hope one of these works for your purposes! If not, do check out this post for other moon-related vocabulary.

#replies #sumerian vocabulary #sumerian ecology #sumerian proverbs #sumerian astronomy

10 notes · View notes

tastesoftamriel · 11 months

Note

What are your favorite egg-based meals?

Eggs! Whether they're from chickens, ducks, geese, quail, and more, there are many dishes around Tamriel that feature this simple ingredient.

Altmer

In Summerset, a popular starter dish is a savoury steamed seafood egg custard known as chawanmushi. Served either chilled or hot enough to melt your face, this little dish is packed with prawns and shellfish and mushrooms, and topped with a slice of chewy fishcake.

Argonians

Crocodile eggs are a delicacy in Black Marsh, and the local Saxhleel have many ways of preparing them. My personal favourite is a flavourful scrambled omelette with scallions and oysters, cooked until the oysters are juicy to the point of bursting and the eggs are fluffy yet crisp. Known as or luak, this omelette is served with a healthy serving of chili sauce.

Bosmer

While people tend to hyperfixate on the meat aspect of the Bosmeri diet, they forget that eggs are just as important a food source. Poached giant snake eggs with cream sauce and smoked salmon atop cricket bread are the perfect brunch delight, especially when paired with a bit of jagga-and-honey.

Bretons

If there's one race in Tamriel who's mastered the soufflé, it's the Bretons. Whether savoury or sweet and set aflame with liquor, you can't deny that this tricky dish is worth every delicious mouthful. I'm personally a big fan of (surprise) four-cheese soufflé, where the egg is whipped with a clever blend of local High Rock cheeses to enhance the stiffening and therefore prevent an immediate collapse upon leaving the oven.

Dunmer

You'll never guess what this Dunmeri dish involves. Kwama eggs? Volcanic ash? Yes. Whole kwama eggs are buried beneath a mixture of lime and ash, and left to ferment for a few weeks until they have achieved a jelly-like texture on the exterior, and a creamy yet firm yolk. The eggs are served sliced and chilled, with pickled ginger on the side. Also great atop savoury saltrice congee.

Imperials

Like their penchant for eating pecorino-stuffed dormice, this dish will have you wondering what's wrong with Imperials. Balut is simply a raw duck egg, containing the lovely surprise of a two week-old foetus. Crack open the egg and sip up the whites, then season that foetus with salt and a splash of vinegar and slurp it up whole. This is, to some, unimaginably cruel, but Imperials in the Blackwood region insist that it's good for the health, and that it's delicious. I'll take their word for it, as this is one of the very few dishes I can't bring myself to try.

Khajiit

If there's a quintessential dish native to southern Elsweyr, it's probably telur balado, or twice-cooked eggs with chili sauce. Eggs are first boiled, then briefly deep fried to give them a delightfully crisp exterior while maintaining a rich yolk. It's then slathered in a rather spicy tomato-based sauce, and served with steamed rice. Also rather nice with a pinch of moon sugar.

Nords

While eggs from just about every bird are commonly used in Nord cuisine, chicken's eggs are by far the most popular and easily accessible. A signature egg dish in Skyrim is a thick omelette studded with bacon, served with sliced spring onions and rye bread. Simple, delicious, and downright good (except for its traditional, apparently Atmoran name, flæskeæggekage).

Orcs

Not everyone enjoys chub loon eggs, but Wrothgarian Orcs can't get enough of their rich, slightly fishy flavour. One popular egg dish is a seafood soup with egg drops, horker meatballs, and mudcrab meat. The egg drops are formed by whisking beaten eggs into the boiling soup, allowing the tendrils to cook on contact. It's served with seaweed noodles and a dash of strong black vinegar.

Redguards

Seagull eggs are a popular ingredient in coastal Hammerfell, and also act as a control measure against too many seagulls. This has happened numerous times in Stros M'kai, where shakshouka hails from. This famous dish is comprised of seagull eggs poached in an iron skillet with a spicy, flavourful tomato sauce, onions, and charred peppers. Usually eaten at breakfast with flatbread to mop up the sauce.

#Bit lazy so have some world foods #the elder scrolls #tes #food #asks #Egg #Eggs #world building #worldbuilding

69 notes · View notes

amadholes-lostre · 8 days

Text

State of California

I already implied multiple times how different yet imperative California is now in the BNHA-AU. How now there is a new ethnicity due thr mixture of Latin and Anglo (mostly Latin culture) culturr including a new language, how there is a new religion originate from here that now dominated Latin America, and just how different it is from today.

California is still have some similarity from today however; Sacramento is still the capital city with Los Angels still the most populous, it has the highest population (more than 80mil) and most powerful economy in the Union, and still important in the West Coast. Texas is still in second when it comes to population (around 50mil) and population, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. California also has the highest rail passengers by state alone, maybe similar to Japan ridership. It is likely it is only beaten by the Northeast corridor, but that region should have a population already at 100mil.

Geography

There is not much change when it comes to geography. It is not like there suddenly are topical rainforests (California actually has temperate rainforests). However, thanks to activists, technology, and laws, many damage to the environment by the Climate Crisis were alleviated. Many Redwood and Sequoia trees managed to reclaimed historic range and then some. There are bisons roaming California, too, with extinct animals brought by to life like mammoth and ground sloth, and mythical creature. California also change their agriculture practice, emulating how Dutch cultivated their products, using greenhouses, hydroponic for efficient water saving, etc. I not going get into more detail (go watch a YouTube about Dutch farming), but this method allowed majority of Central Valley be reclaimed by nature, making the land looks like what it did in the 19th century: Lake Tulare is now permanent, marshlands and has a huge delta.

California also deurbanization (actually desuburbanization) many sprawling cities across the state. For instance, the cities I used to live in -Brentwood and Discovery Bay - are now gone, paved out. Many cities, especially in CV, have greenbelt, which also act the limited of their jurisdiction. I also think, with the Climate Crises alleviated, sea levels will drop by a meter or so, so now half of San Francisco Bay, especially south of San Mateo Bridge, is gone, mostly just salt marshes (and no, there are laws forbidding development on it).

There is a bit more rain due to El Nino and La Nina weather system now having a precedence. Like 2-3 years Nino and then 2-3 years Nina. So there could be a drought season. However, those also mean there's a lot more run, even during the mid-spring to mid-fall in Nino. Tropical storms are not uncommon during Nino, at least 1-2. This also means California will lose like a quarter of their desert are gone, so Antelope Valley and San Bernardino Valley biome are similar to Central Valley.

Cities

Bit difficult to talk about cities since some cities changed their name, some new ones, and that I need to make a map. I gonna try to convey the city position by only referring high population, North to South.

Redien- (Redding)- 500k. Know for rail connecting to Redwood Empire Corridor and to Oregon, high percentage of non-Kalifornáns, and high population of Therians/Lycan (Enid lives here).

Bí-Sierra (changing the name)(Chico) - 400k. Know for: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yebu -250k. Know for: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sacramento - 5mil. Know for being the capital, HQ of Golden State Railway Company.

Metropolis of San Francisco - 17mil. Know for the birth of Califity, Memorial of Califia, Angel of the Bay Statue (looks like a Japanese woman wearing a kimono, also know as Liberty of the West)/Museum of Asian and Latin Fredoians between early 19th century-1950s and Beyond.

Amid-Tu-Rifã (changing the name)(Stockton)- 500k. Know for looking like Venice and Amsterdam.

Tuolumne-ín-Estanislao (Modesto) - 500k. Know for: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Santa Cruz - 120k. Know for beaches and UCSC.

Salinas -1.2mil. Know for just having an HSR train.

Monterey -90k. Know for the aquarium.

Lafenia [Lafenã means Lavander in Californin (Madera)] - 3.5mil. Know for having the HQ of Rolosron (Golden Iron) Company (focus on rolling stocks), SU Laféna (focus on urban design, transportation engineering, and architecture), and vocation on public transit course.

Fresno - 3.2mil. Know for not being Fresno anymore and a dry port (ironically, it's adjacent by a massive river).

Nés Nakiśa (City near Visalia, between Tulare and Tipton)- 2.5mil. Know for being named after Nakiśa the Lover, the Innocent, and the Miracle-Worker.

Nés Anaís (Bakersfield)- 3.7mil. Know for being the birthplace of Anaís, the Lover, the Guardian, and the Martyr.

Santa de Nagasaki, also called Sanagi (in Santa Maria Valley) -6mil. Know for being a cyberpunk-like city (dont know if that's a good thing or not), cyberware and powered suits industry, and the few pro-hero academy in the world meant for non-quirks. It was a former city-state between the Dark Age to 2200s.

Santa Barbara- 200k. Know for just being a nice city.

Metropolis of Los Angels - 24mil. Know for the Gate of Angels (mixture of Brandenburg Gate and Arc de Triomphe, at San Fernando City), Los Angeles Central Station (mixture of Penn Station and Grand Central Station), Los Angeles Grand Park/The Meadow (bigger than Central Park and Golden Gate Park, at the former city of Compton, adjacent to LA River), The Sequoia (think Tokyo Skytree, have branch-like Observation deck, 670 meters tall, somewhere between Mid-Wilshire and Koreatown).

Rifãsíd (Riverside)- 500k. Know for ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

San Diego- 9mil. Likely just the same as today.

All together, this brings it up to 78 mil people. There are other cities, towns, and villages in California like Eureka, towns around Lake Tahoe, and others around, but theses cities are considered either major, well-know, or important. All these cities, with the exception of Santa Cruz and Monterey, are connected by NAHSR, and Sacramento and Los Angeles are connected to the Continental wide Maglev network. I gonna explain California railways network later.

Most of the cities kept today boundary, however demolishing many of its sprawling suburban housing. Like I said before, most cities city boundary are tangible by its greenbelt, and they can't, by state-law, develop pass it unless their km density passed 25km, which many city, especially in Central Valley, haven't pass it. Actually, many cities in the Valley have an average of 250km land areas, with average of 12k km2 density.

Many cities, but especially to SF and LA, have patches of urban forest. Not parks meant for recreation, but forest that is meant for nature. SF and LA have many patches of those urban forests, many usually 1 km² but could be higher than 100 km². They used wildlife crossing to connect them all.

Many cities looks like a mixture of futuristic architecture (I will talk about that later) and somewhat traditional-like like Isabelan architecture (eclecticism of Spanish Colonial and SF-like Victorian architecture, need to talk about that). However, Sanagi is just straight-up cyberpunk city, like I will call it Capital City of Cybernetic, with having an unusually higher percentage of Non-Quirks. Non-Quirks are more likely to installed cyberware than Quirks, to the point majority of their bodies is cybernetic. (Lets not kid ourselves, with BNHA having robots the size of skyscrapers and artificial islands in the middle of the ocean, yeah they will stereotypical cyberpunk technology.)

Economy

I think I hinted this before, but California, and frankly majority of the world are what I considered social democracy, or at least, some form of socialist. In California (and Fredoia), almost every necessity goods or service like water, energy, internet, healthcare, public transportation (including airlines), etc. is own by the government. Meanwhile, some that considered necessity but needs some in-hand by the people like housing (majority of it), foods, etc collectively owned either by neighborhoods (districts), groups, or guilds. Now I think about it, it kinda similar to Post-War Britain, especially how it comes to Attlee policies.

In California, the state has a market socialism and guild socialism (Democratic Socialism). There are companies that are controlled by employees; democratically elected company leaders, a 1 to 5 ratio wages, input how the company should be headed, etc. Half the company stock is owned by the employees, and the other half is owned by the local governments, which is then controlled by the people. They voted how the stock revenue should be allotted and apportioned accordingly (either funding for transit, schooling, maintained, etc.). However, sometimes, thanks to public banks, they will give denizens the money through all the stocks in the city.

For guild, sometime a mixture of labor unions, company of laborers, or craftmanship. Many cities have guild in it jurisdiction. For instance, and this I have an idea for a while: biking is considered a one major ways of transportation in California. Because of that, bikes is a huge industry in the state, bikes repairers and retailers are common in cities. A guild that focus on biking will required those to join to and gain a permit. The permit is meant for laborer protects, universal bike parts, . Meanwhile, customer who have a warrant for the city bike guild could go to any bike repair: if they broke their bike kilometers away from their usual repairers, they could go to a close by repair shop and have it fix free thanks to the guild warrant.

Another city guild/company is like a group of crafter who also works together, but unlike something like a bike-like guild, it act more like a company whose own/control/manage by the city, like for construction company. It will be more efficient since the city will have experience with laborers, more efficient in talks and shit, and if there is unneeded constructions, many laborers will simply be put on paid leave (which kind of unnecessary because California is always either building or maintaining something lol).

Agriculture is owned by small farming communities. Honesty, they likely lived in Tipi-like housing similarly what I talk about in my last post. Their farming is just straight up just like the Dutch, which give higher yields for hecto without needing to use more lands. The government will give the community findings and buy their products so to keep foods extremely low. the government will then sell it, low price, to merchant/retailers who then sell it to consumer in again, low price. However, 1/3 of foods product in California is grown by urban farming.

The majority of housing is collectively controlled by locals/tenets. I based it on Singapore town council and House and Development Board. I know that anyone who knows about this is probably not a good thing, but the other synonymy or trying, think of example is Homeowner Association, which is worse. Each city (or ' special wards' for metropolis cases) have districts, which democratically handled housing (and other buildings). They also have delegates for the city council. The district receives tenets rents and is handling it by either paying utilities, repairs, or insurance (not like insurance company, "just-in-case" like natural disasters, hero/villain's battle, etc.). Prices are dependable on housing types (a duplex will be more expensive than an apartment, while a town house be more expensive than a triplex), rooms (if you have kids, the price will be lower), floors, material of the building itself, and construction method. But price are all fixated, meaning if there a housing that have all the characteristic in two different location, and one is consider far more desirable for its surroundings, the two housing are still the same price. In today markets, we usually handle this by outbidding another buyer, which increases house prices. This is the reason why San Francisco is so expensive. Instead, California housing is handled by a lottery system, fairness by fate instead of higher monetary. Some participant are allowed to have some advantage depending on their situation: if they live in the district/city majority of their life, if they have a family, they lost another lottery, they are about to be homeless soon, and such. Ironically, Frinsica (San Francisco) is still difficult to get a house there, lol.

In housing there, people either rent or buy housing. By renting, it usually cheaper- if we using today renting price, an average price for like an one room apartment will likely be $150 per month (people have limits of free utilities until hiting that limit. Parking isn't included and is optionable since like more than half of California doesn't have a car). It's for people living short-termin the area, occasionally students for either high school/college who doesn't want to live in dorms/SRO, newly adults, or people who simply want an easily life (which is not stigmatize in California). However, it usually has a maximum limit of how long someone could rent there (usually 5 years), so people are either evicted or pay an expensive extension. Buying a hosing is also preferable and also cheaper than today. I don't know what is considerably an average price, but likely a triplex unit will cost $150k (you not owning the entire building, just the unit. You do collectively share it with two other owners). Buying is likely similar to how Singapore housing (go look at a YouTube video, lol). One thing to note is that the owner cannot sell their unit or rent it to another tenet. They could only sell it to the district, which would likely be the same price with 5% add. The owner could allow their unit to be inherited or allow friends/families/associates to live in it, but that likely it. Selling or renting it will defeat the purpose of a lottery system.

There is a national bank, a public bank owned by the federal government. Each state have their own banks which connected to the federal bank. The benefits is there is no monthly fees, withdrawing money from other state bank atm without fees, easier gaining loans with lower interest rate (great for starting business ), better retirement account which also connects to social security. However, there is a limit how much someone could have in their account before they start paying a monthly fee: $100K, and the fees gets much higher along with the saving account. (Also, it is common for people to have two retirement, the average lifespan is 160 years, and there are also quirks that allow some people to have longer lifespans).

For artisan guilds like for writers and artists, there is likely an universal-like wage so writers/artists could allow to do their craft. However, there is likely a quota/requirement so they actually do what they meant to do.

For exports and well-known sectors, it likely will be the same as today with some key differences. For one, they know for rolling stocks, specifically for HSR, metro rails, and trollies. The company that handles it, Rolosron, is located in Laféna. Another is Kalimé, or sometimes called Kaliniśon, animations production in California. It has their own unique style, similar to anime in Japan: inspiration, and how I think it will look like are SPOP, Gurihiru works, and some comics like Specter Inspector. Produced in either Los Angeles or San Francisco. Cyberware is also well-known, many of which are produced in Sanagi. Maybe also biking manufacturers, revenues from Califinitan pilgrims, and likely that it.

Half the main energy source are renewable, including solar energy, wind energy, ocean tide, and hydroelectricity. The rest is nuclear fusion plants, and when I mean plants, I mean there are only four plants in the entire state (they needed imported huge amount of tritium gas, also yes, there are still fission plants). There are also room-temperature superconductors, which it is not as common so its usually use for either fusion reactors, transmission tower (almost all California's wind power comes from the Great Plains), energy storages for cities. They are also getting into the noireau (metallic hydrogen) industry.

California working hours is 6 hours, and could only work for 4 days. Cause of this, they have 3 day weekend. In Califinity, they viewed that person must time in three order: Friday for resting, Saturday for indulgence, Sunday for praying. They also get 2 four weeks vacation and 1 three weeks of vacation.

Transportation

YEAH! This is the one I waiting for; I keep indulging about California having an intricate rail network. For now, I gonna talk about non-rail transit because I dont fuck around with trains.

The majority of California used rails for transportation, with Los Angeles rails having 28mil passengers in a city of 24mil (wondering how, go look at Tokyo transportations section in Wiki). However, there are many people who also use either the bus or are preferable to either walk or bike to their destination. There are people who uses cars, but it a privilege to use it, and expensive too: there is congestion charge, parking fees, registration fees for battery cars, high taxes for either ammonia or noireau fuels , and high tolls for using Interstate/Expressways (maybe like $1000-1500 for per year, and higher for freight trucks) (many freeway/interstate were demolished in inner-cities however).

Not only that, many cities have streets design that are similar to Tokyo and European cities: having few boulevard that connect the city in boarder scale, but have streets that either one-way, or pedestrian only zone.

This kind of street are very common in California cities.

California owns a state-enterprise airliner, Golden Airline. There are only 5 major airports in California, 3 that deal with international (as in, non-UNEC member)/intercontinental destinations): San Francisco International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, San Diego International Airport, East Bay Transcontinental Airport (Oakland Airport), and Santa Ana Transcontinental Airport (John Wayne).Not only are there fewer airports, but intrastate flights are banned in the state. Thanks to federal law, constitution, and UNEC, flights are also banned to Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Navajo-Hopi, and the State of Baja California.

Rail

California owns a state-enterprise that deals with rail passengers called Golden Railways Company (HQ in Sacramento). Actually, it is one of seven subsidies of Amtrak, which is far larger than today, to the point there has to be smaller companies to deal with railways. The other is Lone Star Railways (Texas and California are the only states to have their own railway companies; HQ in Austin), Northeast Railway Company (Northeast region including Maryland and DC, HQ in New York City), Russet Railway Company (Midwest States that isn't under Lakotah lands; HQ in Chicago), Cascadia Railway Company (Oregon and Washington states; HQ in Olympia, WA), South Railways Company (can't think of a good name lol, compassed all other Southern States; HQ in Atlanta, GA), and Sunwest Railway Company (Southwestern States including Idaho, Montana and Wyoming (any left over lol); HQ is maybe either in Phoenix, Santa Fe or Denver).

California has a massive railway network; it's possible to go to any destination via rails in the state, via regional corridor like the Redwood Empire Corridor (talk about that soon), or intercity/hsr. California two important corridors; the Golden Corridor that goes through Central Valley all the to San Diego (and connects to other states and countries), and the Southern Range Corridor (also called Salinas) that started in San Francisco, goes through Salinas Valley, to Sanagi, Santa Barbara and then Los Angels.

The Golden Corridor used the legacy route of CAHSR, a project that, despite its flaws, was fundamentally crucial for the state. I gonna digress for a bit but people bitching about how the route "should be shorten" or go pass certain cities missed the point. California does not have a good connection with its cities. Yeah, there is Amtrak, but the issue is that it is too slow for conveniences, many of its tracks are owned by freight companies, and there are no direct routes for SF-Fresno-LA. The reason why there is such high population in Central Valley is thanks to CAHSR (and other things). The only reason there is some route change is because there are always things to improve on, some cities are just gone, and there are other routes that don't need HSR.

(What the majority of GC looks like)

There is some new routes and changes of route. For one, it goes further norths to Chico, Redding, and then to Oregon. Another is the corridor at SF-Jose. Right now, CAHSR will share with Caltrain, using the same rails. It is great because it electrified the rails. However, there are some flaws. There are still level crossing, which, admittingly, some are being constructed to have grade separation. Another issue is that it has double-track railways, and it's in the middle of an urban environment.

A few decades after Califia's death (maybe 2080s to 2090s), California has somewhat of a rail revolution, transforming the state railways. For one, the state converted half of state route 101 (SF-Mountain View) into quadruple-track railway. The benefits that it allows HSR trains to go faster, allowing other trains to share (the Bay Area has a RER/S-Bahn trains), and is more separate from urban neighborhoods. The corridor split off from MV: one goes to San Jose Central Station (dual-track again), another still going along US101 than merging with IS880 (still a quad-track). The former Caltrain corridor is converted into a BART line (which is owned by BATA- Bay Area Transportation Authority/likely succeeded Seamless Bay Area). Once the corridor enters SF, it follows the same route of US101 (there is now freeways in SF), which, instead following CAHSR terminating underground, it goes to SF Central Station at the former IS80 above ground. It's a through-station and follows into SF-O Bay Bridge, which either goes to Oakland 16th Street Station, or continues to Sacramento. The Bay Bridge (Golden Gate Bridge and San Mateo Bridge too) itself is similar to New York Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge: railways in the bottom, 3x3 road, and a pedestrian/cycling route atop.

(Where SF/Frinsica Central Station will be located. Also note this is the only way for cars to enter the bridge. Also, i am hitting on my image limit, lol.

For the majority of the corridor, from Sacramento to San Diego, the majority is quadruple-tracks. Well, maybe six-track if you count Maglev, it fellows the Golden Corridor. Also, San Francisco is the largest city in Fredoia that doesn't have a maglev station (lol, lmao even). Some cities are gone, so the corridor does not stop there. Kings/Tulare is Nés Nakiśa, the one near Visalia, and then to Nés Anaís. If a city is adjacent along the corridor, it will have a station, but the HSR will bypass it. There are also minor corridors that connect to the Golden Corridor. Best metaphor, the Golden Corridor is an artery that connects capillary.

After Bakersfield, it bypassed Palmdale and continued to Burbank/LA. Like I said before, Palmdale is connected to the Golden Corridor and does have it own Corridor, its only that HSR does not go there. After LA, it continue down south; it does not go west to San Bernardino. Instead, it continues journeying to Anaheim and then cutting through Chino Hills towards Riverside. From there, it either goes to Las Vegas and/or Phoenix and/or Jeddito and the rest of the country. Or it continues to San Diego, Tijuana, Mexicali, and then all the way to Mexico City. It is quite common for Californians and Mexicans to travel for either places thanks to UNEC having a open border policy.

(Notices how once stopping at Riverside, it either goes south, north, or northeast). (Also, I mention before and forgot to said it here, HSR can go up to 450 kph (average likely 400 kph). How they achieved this, other then making sure the corridor is as straight as possible is by: having wireless power transfer beneath the tracks (not eroding the overhead lines), concretene (concrete that has graphene mixed in it) to withstand the vibration and have longer lifespan, and nistíl (neo-steel which is my own idea; just steel itron mixed with graphene) which also withstand the vibration, friction, and have a longer lifespan).

The Southern Range Corridor, or the Salinas Corridor, is another corridor that meant for HSR. The Golden Corridor became extremely congestion: not only regional and HSR trains are using it, but also interstate and international trains frequent the route. So GRC constructed another corridor (likely in the early 2200s) to alleviate the main corridor traffic. It also has many cities in this region, especially Salinas and Sanagi, that don't have proper train lines. The corridor started from Gilroy. Instead ofgoing east, it goes south, going to Salinas. Then it goes southeast through Salinas Valley, continuing all the to Paso Robles. Then it goes south through the mountains, going through San Luis Obispo, then stopping at Sanagi (Santa Maria Valley). It then goes southeast again to through another hills, stopping at Santa Barbara, then through the mountains again to Ventura, goes to Oxnard, Camarillo, and then to Los Angeles Central Station.

(What the corridor looks like)

Now, the Golden Corridor and Salinas Corridor aren't the only corridors, but those two are the most important, having HSR lines and high traffic. There are other corridors in California, local/regional ones that connect to either corridors. Small traffic yet crucial. One corridor I want to talk about is the Redwood Empire Corridor.

(red is dual-tracks and blue is single-tracks)

The Redwood Empire population, minus anything south of Santa Rosa, is around 750k. Once past Santa Rosa, the corridor goes in a counter-clockwise. The red that goes east-west allows the line to form a 0-shape route. There is like an average 15-20 on the line. I got the idea from Not Just Bikes video about Switzerland. Thanks to this, there are far more people who travel to Redwood forest, especially in spring and summer. There are other corridors in low-populated regions that use similar routes.

The state entire uses clock-fast scheduling- arriving or departing either at 0s or 5s- and pulse timetabling.

There are different categories and types of rail trains, basing it off from Germany and some from the UK. The reason why those two is because it's the only one I can find in Wikipedia, lol. Usually based on how important the hub is, intermittent trips, number of passengers daily, and huge the building is. If I properly made a category list, LA and Sacramento will be 1 (having a maglev stop) while San Francisco and Lafénia will be 2 (not having one. Also, being the last stop before an important junctions is the reason why Lafénia has such a high population).

Education

Before I startn I need to remind everyone that the average lifespan is 160. This means that people ages slower, including sexual maturity like some animals like giant tortoises and bowhead whales. So there people in their 50s who looks in their 20s, or in their 90/100s who looks like in their 40s, similar like Aragorn from lotr (this also means women/afab are averagely 2-3 inches shorter than men/amab, and menstrual cycle is 60 days. Average Ostrace age is usually 200-250 excluding Kitsune and Sanguinarians). So schooling lasts a bit longer than today. (Also, California schooling is implemented country-wide with some difference.) There are laws that require schools to be surrounded by pedestrian-only streets. School days are Monday-Thursday. Some schools also have Friday but it is only half-time

There is 4 levels based on age:

Elementary school, also have daycare :0-8

Primary School: 8-12

Lower Secondary School: 12-16

Upper Secondary School (referred to as Liséa in Kalifornán): 16-20

Elementary schools are far more common than the other 3 schoolings, with an average 1 elementary per 1.5 km. The reason is that is so young children could be closer to their schools. It compassed pre-school, kindergarten, and Grades 1 and 2. Elementary teaches students their primary language (Kalifornan), basic math, and such. An average elementary will likely have a body of 100-200 students, with teachers having a class of 8-10. The elementary playground will also act as a local park. Elementary students are also called Ducklings due teachers picking up their students and herding them to schools like a parent duck and students wearing bright coats.

Primary schools are a bit more widespread due to students being supposed to act more independently, maybe like 1 per 5-10 km. Students are supposed to learn their second languages (usually either English or Spanish, but in some cases, a different language if the neighborhood has a large non-Californian population). An average class has 10-12 students with 500 per school, and students stay in the same class all day. Parents pick their child schools. Schools last 8:30-1:30

Lower Secondary School is widespread too, with 1 LS per 10-20 km. Students again will learn another language, learn more complex subjects, and such. Average classrooms are 12-16 and like PS, students shared same classes. Students are allow to pick their schooling when entering Lower School. School last 8:30-2:30.

Upper Secondary School (or Liséa in California) is far more widespread, with 1 per 20-40 km. Unlike the last three, students do not share classes but go to classes individually. UP acts more like a university than the other schools. Students may learn another language, but it is not mandatory. Not only students may choose their schooling but they could go to another city's schools if desire. It is common for students from small cities and towns to go to bigger cities like SF and LA for schooling (staying at either schools' dorm, social single-room occupancy, or renting an apartment). Students also gain a counselor who guides them for post-US life and careers, especially if it's related to their quirks. It is dependable on the student's schedule, but Schools last 8:30-3:30.

From Primary to Upper School, all students are required to wear an uniform. However, dress code is only not strict but students are courage to customize their uniform, embracing California social individualism. Gender restricted is illegal, and students, regardless of gender, are allowed to wear either pants or skirts. In fact, it is common for boys and masculine genderqueers to wear skirts during summer classes.

Classes scheduling is dependable on cities and their school district, but there are causes where classes have hybrid scheduling of Block and Timetable, with all 8 classes the first Monday, and A/B for the rest of the week. However, some classes, like language and math, are required to be held daily. A school year lasted from late March-Late June = 4/5 weeks vacation= Early August-Late Nov./Early Dec. = 4/5 weeks vacation = Early Jan - Mid/Late Feb = 2/3 weeks vacation = New School Year.

There is a new legal status called Minor. When a student/child reached the age of 15 years-old, their legal status will be listed as Minor, a transition from childhood to adulthood. Under this status, they enjoy far more privilege than they did as a child:

Allow to consume alcohol that is under 5%.

vote in local election.

Go to doctors without parents permission and do minor procedures like HRT

Watch +16 movies at the theaters.

At age 20, they allowed to do:

Voted in State and National-wide election and run for local office.

Consume all levels of alcohol.

Watch +20 movies at theaters.

Allow to do major medical procedures like gender-assignment surgery.

At age 25, they allowed to do:

Run for state and national-wide lower-chamber office (upper chamber and executive branch is 35).

Join the military.

Allow to work in Pleasure Guild (adult films, sex workers).

Drive and operate machineries like cars, trucks, trains, planes, etc.

Culture

The majority of Californians are an ethnicity I already talked about, Kalifornán. Kalifornáns formed (how does a new ethnicity happen?) due to many other Latins ethnicities' culture, especially Mexicans, shared, borrowed, and merged their culture together with Anglo in California. The language, again called Kalifornán, formed from Spanglish. Kalifornáns is primarily found in California, but many are also found in either US states like Arizona and in Mexico states like Baja California.

Kalifornáns are usually energetic and cheerful, more so than non-Kalifornáns. They greeted one another with hugs and kisses on cheeks, regardless of gender (even in formal greeting, they do so, though only with other Kalifornáns). Informal and casual parties are common, lasting into 1-3 am. When guests come over, the host usually serves coffee like cafecito and some pastries. It is just like other Latin Americans' etiquette.

Small street parties are also more common, usually starting around 4-6 pm. Its due to how permits are not really required, only informing a police officer and asking permission of either store or restaurant owners if they throw one. This creates a stereotype of how Kalifornáns are always throwing parties.

Different gender and sexuality are far more acceptable and common in California, with at least 30% self-identified being queers. Even men who consider themselves cishet will wear skirts if the day is hot, and wear bright colors and showing off skin (think timothee chalamet venice film festival outfit).

In beaches and film, breasts are not stigmatized, and it's common for women or genderqueers with breasts to be top less (though some wears a wrap around their shoulder). Non-genital nudity in media is also non-censor and is known to be shown in media below rated-16. Breasts are not sexualize in California, they are more interested in hips, waists, thigh, and butts.

Kalifornáns celebrated their Quinceañera, regardless of gender. For Kalifornáns, especially Califinitans, a child reaching 15 years old, a Minor in legal status, is considered the second most important birthday of their life (behind their Awakenday). This age is considered a transition of childhood to adulthood, and so, many people celebrate their coming in age day. For girls is called Quinceañera, boys is called Quinceañero, and for nonbinaries and other genderqueers is called Quinceañere. It is commonly to celebrate Quinceañera-children all together in the end of the month, usually at a Califinitan temple, and the government pays half of the celebration.

It is common for Kalifornáns to have mini-vacation once a month or so, using their 3-day weekend. They usually preferred traveling 2 and a half hours away from their home, using HSR (hence the high ridership). It's also common for Minors, even young as 15, to have mini vacation by themselves or with friends. It also common for them to visit family or friends if they attend school in another city.

Kalifornáns usually started parenthood between their 40s-50s, usually having 2-4 kids. Parents use their parental leaves for childrearing; parental leaves could be used for up to 3 years, and both the workplace and government pay for their leave ( the workplace is only up to a year). However, it is common for parents to stay home up to six months, where either parents (or ternary or more parents) will agree upon a schedule where one either: work half day and the other take care of the child, one work full day while the other care, or do a hybrid with mixing both schedules. It's very common for families, friends, and amises (will explain that later) to help rear the child, including the community, too. Thanks to technology and different social norms, there are different ways to begotten a child: artificial wombs are becoming the most popular way, though queue are long. (For artificial wombs, gestation is much larger -16-18 months, but the benefits are that infants are more developed compared to natural ways. They will be born as a 6 months old infant and soon start crawling a month later). Vitro gametogenesis is already mainstream. Another method is synth-organ/glan: synthesizing tissue that does certain functions that can't be found in human biology initially ex: having a specific gland to filter carbon dioxide, or having freckle-like bioluminescent marks. Meaning, it is possible for ciswomen to have a synth-penis that produces estrogen and gamete and, likewise, for cismen.

In Kalifornáns, and frankly, Califinitans too, there are considered 3 important important group that fomrat into structures of an individual: families, friends, and lovers, and they all central around the person. In Califinity, one of the most important holidays (expect the day Califia death/transcendence) involves around this, celebrated in the first 3-day weekend of June (it is no coincident why it is in June). So, while romantic is important, platonic-ships are also very important. One such instance is called amís. An amís (or amise/amisa/amiśo) is someone most dearest, closest friend. A word that is similar to it is the Japanese word Nakama. Rarely will people have more than one amís. It is common between amís to have a civil union while also romantically marry to another person. Amís are known to be intimate, including cuddling, small kisses, and hugs (sex is uncommon but not unheard of). Amís will also raise child together, and sometime they will be both child biological parent. There is a genre in media that is meant for amís.

Snippet culture

Can't really think of categorizing this so I gonna type it out. Kalifornán parents don't genderize their child name. Since Kalifornán uses some Spanish rules, including grammatical genders (-a is feminin, -o is masculine, -e is nonbinary/genderqueer, and no vowels mean gender neutral; likely will use ä,ö, and ë), the parents uses gender neutral, and it's up to the child if they want a gender suffix.

It's common for children to call their parents by their first, especially if they're same-gender. For instance, Anne Boonchuy will usually call her mom Mami Oum. However, sometimes, they will have a nonbinary/gender neutral informal parent word, Parí (pair-e). Same uses if both parents are same-gender or one happens to be a genderqueer.

This isn't only done by Kalifornáns but also country-wide, but it expects for both couples to take each other's name, like how Latin Americans do so. For example, Anne Boonchuy full name is Anne Asnee-Boonchuy (Asnee is Oum's surname). Usually, women keep their mother surname and men likewise. Same-gender couple, like a sapphic couple, both will keep their mother surname and again likewise for gay men couple. Nonbinary/genderqueer couple or partner is a bit difficult, but they usually choose what name to keep or keep if one of their is nonbinary/genderqueer. There are also new surnames. (Disgressing a bit, but Emma Nolan full name is Emma Emdis-Nolan. The -Dis suffix means "daughter," and Em- is shortened for Emma. Also, she has two mothers, but she still gets disowned due to being a non-quirk (oof). Also, she has six other sisters).

There are some new dishes, one is which is sandwich/taco-like. It's similar to roujiamo (Chinese sandwich, which half the bread is halfway slice before stuffing food into) with using arepa (or any other flatbread). The bread is slice halfway, and then hallowing it inisde. Then, the ingredients uses spiced and shredded grilled meat (usually chicken), shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, cutted green onions, maybe diced of white onions, and condiments of sour cream, and either BBQ or thousand islands sauce.

The majority of Southern California are non-Deitist Califinitans, and Northern California are Deitist Califinitans (especially in the Bay Area and Central Valley).

Romantic relationships with age gaps will likely be more common due to longer lifespan, especially if dating an Ostrace. Yoko Tanaka is likely twice the age of Divina, though Sanguinarians ages even slower than an average Ostrace. It will not be surprising if, say, a young Japanese lesbian dated a Kitsune and found out she was alive when Matthew C. Perry went ashore on Japan.

There is a balcony culture, similar to what Montreal has. Since most people in California don't own a single detach housing anymore, and that many housing has a balcony, people will convey their balcony in their own liking. An average balcony is likely a bit smaller than an average room, half which jutted out from the building. There are a lot of hanging plants, many of which are flowering that dangle from it (I based it on Cartagena historic district), and it is common to see people having conversations from across one.

Popular sports are association football that doesn't revolve quirks, girdfield that use flyers (flying broomstick) and non-mage-kind could play, and Metaball, which is the most popular sport in the world. Metaball is a quirks sport, meaning a person needs to have a quirk in order to play. The rules are malleable depending on players, but everyone is required to use a soft exosuit. Capture the Flags is also popular, which is mostly a pro-hero game that heros, usually forming a team based on their cities and playing against each other. The game could escalate very fast, and it is popular on pro-hero academies.

Don't know what else to talk about. The justice system is vastly different, like police officers (other than requiring to have some sort of degree) can't carry lethal arms. The US has a gendarmerie force, the National Guard, which revolves usually against highly dangerous quirks (justice systems are not allowed to use the term "villian")(raiding, capturing, and transporting), internal security, and all that stuff. Pro-heros operate differently than Japan, which are like private cops. Pro-hero is another branch of the National Guard, meaning it's a gendarmerie, different from that they focus more on their quirks individually. Pro-heros usually are put in team, squad, and operate individually and occasionally as teams like Justice League and The Avenger. The highest ranking team in the US is called Liberty Paladins, which usually involves protecting both the prime minister and president, dangerous missions, and stuff (California hero team is called Golden Costodian). Also, during the time of war, Peo-heros will act and operate like soldiers.

Pretty much that it. I planning on changing the US name, somewhat similar to Saoirse, got inspired watching a sex scene of Saoirse Ronan with Charlotte Murchison and I kinda like that name.

8 notes · View notes