#just imagine if it was a continent today and you could travel to it

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s “A City On Mars”

In A City On Mars, biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith set out to investigate the governance challenges of the impending space settlements they were told were just over the horizon. Instead, they discovered that humans aren't going to be settling space for a very long time, and so they wrote a book about that instead:

https://www.acityonmars.com/

The Weinersmiths make the (convincing) case that ever aspect of space settlement is vastly beyond our current or reasonably foreseeable technical capability. What's more, every argument in favor of pursuing space settlement is errant nonsense. And finally: all the energy we are putting into space settlement actually holds back real space science, which offers numerous benefits to our species and planet (and is just darned cool).

Every place we might settle in space – giant rotating rings, the Moon, Mars – is vastly more hostile than Earth. Not just more hostile than Earth as it stands today – the most degraded, climate-wracked, nuke-blasted Earth you can imagine is a paradise of habitability compared to anything else. Mars is covered in poison and the sky disappears under planet-sized storms that go on and on. The Moon is covered in black-lung-causing, razor-sharp, electrostatically charged dust. Everything is radioactive. There's virtually no water. There are temperature swings of hundreds of degrees every couple of hours or weeks. You're completely out of range of resupply, emergency help, or, you know, air.

There's Helium 3 on the Moon, but not much of it, and there is no universe in which is it cheaper to mine for Helium 3 on the Moon than it is to mine for it on Earth. That's generally true of anything we might bring back from space, up to and including continent-sized chunks of asteroid platinum.

Going to space doesn't end war. The countries that have gone to space are among the most militarily belligerent in human history. The people who've been to space have come back perfectly prepared to wage war.

Going to space won't save us from the climate emergency. The unimaginably vast trove of material and the energy and advanced technology needed to lift it off Earth and get it to Mars is orders of magnitude more material and energy than we would need to resolve the actual climate emergency here.

We aren't anywhere near being a "multiplanetary species." The number of humans you need in a colony to establish a new population is hard to estimate, but it's very large. Larger than we can foreseeably establish on the Moon, on Mars, or on a space-station. But even if we could establish such a colony, there's little evidence that it could sustain itself – not only are we a very, very long way off from such a population being able to satisfy its material needs off-planet, but we have little reason to believe that children could gestate, be born, and grow to adulthood off-planet.

To top it all off, there's space law – the inciting subject matter for this excellent book. There's a lot of space law, and while there are some areas of ambiguity, the claims of would-be space entrepreneurs about how their plans are permissible under the settled parts of space law don't hold up. But those claims are robust compared to claims that space law will simply sublimate into its constituent molecules when exposed to the reality of space travel, space settlement, and (most importantly) space extraction.

Space law doesn't exist in a vacuum (rimshot). It is parallel to – and shares history with – laws regarding Antarctica, the ocean's surface, and the ocean's floor. These laws relate to territories that are both vastly easier to access and far more densely populated by valuable natural resources. The fact that they remain operative in the face of economic imperatives demands that space settlement advocates offer a more convincing account than "money talks, bullshit walks, space law is toast the minute we land on a $14 quadrillion platinum asteroid."

The Weinersmiths have such an account in defense of space law: namely, that space law, and its terrestrial analogs, constitute a durable means of resolving conflicts that would otherwise give rise to outcomes that are far worse for science, entrepreneurship, human thriving or nation-building than the impediments these laws represent.

What's more, space law is enforceable. Not only would any space settlement be terribly, urgently dependent on support from Earth for the long-foreseeable future, but every asteroid miner, Lunar He3 exporter and Martian potato-farmer hoping to monetize their products would have an enforcement nexus with a terrestrial nation and thus the courts of that nation.

But the Weinersmiths aren't anti-space. They aren't even anti-space-settlement. Rather, they argue that the path to space-based scientific breakthroughs, exploration of our solar system, and a deeper understanding of our moral standing in a vast universe cannot start with space settlements.

Landing people on the Moon or Mars any time soon is a stunt – a very, very expensive stunt. These boondoggles aren't just terribly risky (though they are – people who attempt space settlement are very likely to die horribly and after not very long), they come with price-tags that would pay for meaningful space science. For the price of a crewed return trip to Mars, you could put multiple robots onto every significant object in our solar system, and pilot an appreciable fleet of these robot explorers back to Earth with samples.

For the cost of a tiny, fraught, lethal Moon-base, we could create hundreds of experiments in creating efficient, long-term, closed biospheres for human life.

That's the crux of the Weinersmiths' argument: if you want to establish space settlements, you need to do a bunch of other stuff first, like figure out life-support, learn more about our celestial neighbors, and vastly improve our robotics. If you want to create stable space-settlements, you'll need to create robust governance systems – space law that you can count on, rather than space law that you plan on shoving out the airlock. If you want humans to reproduce in space – a necessary precondition for a space settlement that lasts more than a single human lifespan – then we need to do things like breed multiple generations of rodents and other animals, on space stations.

Space is amazing. Space science is amazing. Crewed scientific space missions are amazing. But space isn't amazing because it offers a "Plan B" for an Earth that is imperiled by humanity's recklessness. Space isn't amazing because it offers unparalleled material wealth, or unlimited energy, or a chance to live without laws or governance. It's not amazing because it will end war by mixing the sensawunda of the "Pale Blue Dot" with the lebensraum of an infinite universe.

A science-driven approach to space offers many dividends for our species and planet. If we can figure out how to extract resources as dispersed as Lunar He3 or asteroid ice, we'll have solved problems like extracting tons of gold from the ocean or conflict minerals from landfill sites, these being several orders of magnitude more resource-dense than space. If we can figure out how to create self-sustaining terraria for large human populations in the radiation-, heat- and cold-blasted environs of space, we will have learned vital things about our own planet's ecosystems. If we can build the robots that are necessary for supporting a space society, we will have learned how to build robots that take up the most dangerous and unpleasant tasks that human workers perform on Earth today.

In other words, it's not just that we should solve Earth's problems before attempting space settlement – it's that we can't settle space until we figure out the solutions to Earth's problems. Earth's problems are far simpler than the problems of space settlement.

As I read the Weinersmiths' critique of space settlement, I kept thinking of the pointless AI debates I keep getting dragged into. Arguments for space settlement that turn on existential risks (like humanity being wiped out by comets, sunspots, nuclear armageddon or climate collapse) sound an awful lot like the arguments about "AI safety" – the "risk" that the plausible sentence generator is on the verge of becoming conscious and turning us all into paperclips.

Both arguments are part of a sales-pitch for investment in commercial ventures that have no plausible commercial case, but whose backers are hoping to get rich anyway, and are (often) sincerely besotted with their own fantasies:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

Both AI and space settlement pass over the real risks, such as the climate consequences of their deployment, or the labor conditions associated with their production. After all, when you're heading off existential risk, you don't stop to worry about some carbon emissions or wage theft.

And critically, both ignore the useful (but resolutely noncommercial) ways that AI or space science can benefit our species. AI radiology analysis might be useful as an adjunct to human radiological analysis, but that is more expensive, not less. Space science might help us learn to use our materials more efficiently on Earth, and that will come long before anyone makes rendezvous with a $14 quadrillion platinum asteroid.

There are beneficial uses for LLMs. When the Human Rights Data Analysis Group uses an LLM to help the Innocence Project New Orleans extract and categorize officer information from wrongful conviction records, they are doing something valuable and important:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

It's socially important work, a form of automation that is an unalloyed good, but you won't hear about it from LLM advocates. No one is gonna get rich on improving the efficiency of overturning wrongful convictions with natural language processing. You can't inflate a stock bubble with the Innocence Project.

By the same token, learning about improving gestational health by breeding multigenerational mouse families in geosynchronous orbit is no way to get a billionaire tech baron to commit $250 billion to space science. But that's not an argument against emphasizing real science that really benefits our whole species. It's an argument for taking away capital allocation authority from tech billionaires.

I'm a science fiction writer. I love stories about space. But I can distinguish fantasy from reality and thought experiments from suggestions. Kim Stanley Robinson's 2015 novel Aurora – about failed space settlement – is every bit as fascinating and inspirational as "golden age" sf:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/11/02/kim-stanley-robinsons-aurora-space-is-bigger-than-you-think/

But still, it inspired howls of outrage from would-be space colonists. So much so that Stan wrote a brilliant essay explaining what we were all missing about space settlement, which I published:

https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html

With City on Mars, the Weinersmiths aren't making the case for giving up on space, nor are they trying to strip space of its romance and excitement. They're trying to get us to focus on the beneficial, exciting, serious space science we can do right now, not just because it's attainable and useful – but because it is a necessary precondition for any actual space settlement in the distant future.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

#pluralistic #books #reviews #space #bezzles #mars #spacex #robots #science #space science #space travel #space settlement #space colonization

[softtdaisy]

hellu lando with it's okay, just breathe.

I LOVE your writing, you deserve all the celebration love!

Pairing: Lando Norris x female!reader

Words: 1020

A/n: the fact i went over 1k words for a story i don’t feel confident about is crazy. I really hope you will like it, i’ve never write about Lando before so it’s a first try  

Dating Lando was like living in a new sitcom episode every single day. Even when he was away for the championship and you couldn’t travel with him, he found a way to make your day better. A call, a message, the stupidest joke ever or the cutest proof of love. 

There were some bad days, of course. But somehow, the sun always seemed to shine even in the darkest sky. 

You could write a whole book about your boyfriend. 

You really considered doing it these past days. Being away from him for too long was getting harder for you. It was really like missing a half of yourself when he was in another country or, worse, in another continent. No amount of calls was making for the lack of waking up with him by your side.

“You realize that one day you’re going to deal with me every day for the rest of your life? Shouldn’t you enjoy your free time while you can?” he told you on the phone after you admitted being sad about him leaving early for Canada. He hasn’t even been home since Spain and he was already leaving.

“Well right now, I miss you, idiot.”

“Well I miss you too, dummy.” 

It was probably one of the quickest decisions you’ve ever made. After waking up again feeling alone and sad without the man you loved, you booked a flight for Montréal during the afternoon to see him. You didn’t even tell anyone, except for Max, Lando’s best friend, to make sure at least one person would be aware of your trip. You wanted to surprise your boyfriend.

You had no idea that this would become one of the most stressful days for him.

When Lando woke up on the other side of the world, you were already up in the air. He didn’t question why you weren’t answering his texts. He knew that when you were working, you tended to be so focused that you forget about the world around you. He also knew that he could call you if he was worried because that was the only thing that would make you pick up your phone. 

Somehow, Lando felt like something was off. He could put his finger on what.

If he was a fan of media duties, he couldn’t focus on anything today. His laugh sounded fake, he wasn’t smiling as much. “If something is wrong, you can tell me.” Oscar reassured him after he had to handle every interview that morning.

But he didn’t say anything. Lando wasn’t the kind to cry on anyone’s shoulder for nothing. He didn’t want to bother his teammate for just a feeling. 

Then it became more than a feeling when he still couldn’t reach you. 

You were supposed to be home. Or heading home. Anyway, you would have answered Lando’s texts already. But you didn’t.

He tried to call you. But you didn’t answer.

He asked Carlos to call you too, knowing he was one of the few drivers to have your number. But you didn’t answer either.

“Something wrong?” Carlos asked him but he refused to say anything. If he kept it to himself, it wouldn’t be real, right?

So Lando did the worst thing he could have done, he knew that. He went to the practices with fear and stress. He couldn’t think about the race or the cars or his whole career. Fuck that. All he cared about was you. He did so many mistakes he couldn’t even imagine the number of comments on social media about him being done or whatever these stupid opinions were saying. The team was already giving him a hard time on the radio.

When Lando got out of the car, he felt like he saw a ghost. Expect it wasn’t one.

It was you. Standing in the middle of the garage.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he wasn’t dreaming, that it wasn’t his mind giving him what he wanted to see. You were here. For real. Not home. But here with him.

Lando then ran to you and took you in his arms. “Oh wow I didn’t expect that to be so welcoming.” you laughed in his ears. Knowing him, you were convinced he would make a joke about you being here at the same time as his mistress. Or that you should take a shower, when he was the one dirty after racing. 

Not that he would hug you that tight. You felt him bringing him to his room and you followed him, quite perplexed on why he was reacting like that. 

It wasn’t until you were alone that you noticed he was shivering against you. 

“Hey, what’s going on?” you asked him, moving your head to see his sad face. You barely ever saw him being that miserable around you.

“You’re here…” he replied, breathless. You took his face between your hands.

“it's okay, just breathe,” you put your forehead against his and felt him relaxed slowly. 

“You didn’t answer me and I thought something had happened. I couldn’t call you, I couldn’t reach you and I thought you were… I can’t imagine my life without you!” 

“I’m not planning on leaving you.” you replied with a sweet smile, giving him a soft kiss on his lips. Lando always said that your lips had some calming power. And he wasn’t wrong. You could feel relaxed after that, like it was the proof he needed to be sure you were really here.

You spent some long minutes together in the silence. Now that he was accepting that nothing had happened to you and that you were here, for real, he was enjoying your presence. You gave him small kisses in the hair, the one he loved when he had a terrible weekend. It felt quite the same for once.

“I’m taking notes that you don’t like surprises.” you whispered in his hair.

“Not the one where I think I’m losing the love of my life, dummy.”

“Love of my life and dummy in the same sentence? What a pretty love language, Norris.” 

#lando norris #lando norris x reader #lando norris imagine #lando norris story #lando norris x you #lando norris x y/n #lando norris angst #lando norris fanfic #lando norris fic #f1 fanfic #f1 angst #f1 story #f1 imagine #f1 #my writing

[divinemare]

Tales Of Oceans and Shadows

(I’ve been dying to post this! It’s been on my drafts for so long, and I missed my babies so much!)

Just some little stories I imagined about Kallistrade and Azriel’s life after the end of Dark Tides.

Oh, Sweet Baby Nyx

summary: little nyx loves his aunt kallistrade, and gets really sad when she has to leave because of her busy pirate life, this time, he will definitely throw a tantrum about it.

Kallistrade wasn’t very good with little kids, she seemed to scare them, even tho she didn’t intended to do so. But when little Nyx arrived to her life, something changed for her.

It had happened the first time she stayed alone with him. Feyre was dead tired after barely any sleep because Nyx had had a rough night. Kallistrade had just arrived of a little trip to Skull Island she had taken of emergency for some issues that needed her urgent attention. She went straight to visit Feyre, and the poor female fell asleep immediately after placing Nyx in Kallistrade’s arms.

She hadn’t known what to do at first, she had even felt scared, not knowing if she was holding the baby right. But she hadn’t wanted to wake Feyre up, so instead went to look for Rhys. Kallistrade found the male sound asleep in his office desk, dead tired too. So she sent a panic alert down the mating bond to Azriel, begging the male showed up quickly.

Nyx had started to babble as if he was seconds away of bursting in tears, and Kallistrade had panicked even more.

“No, no. Don’t you dare, little kraken, don’t. you. dare,” she hadn’t known what she expected to achieve by threatening or pointing him out as if he was one of her crew members, but it had definitely not been that the little baby started smiling at her, and grabbed her finger in his tiny ones to start chewing on it.

She had been at a loss of words, completely shocked by the simplicity yet magnificent moment of the baby smiling up at her.

She immediately felt a protectiveness in her she hadn’t felt before, like that little baby had become something she would cherish and protect against any evil from the darkest and deepest of seas from now on and until the oceans completely dried.

Azriel had arrived just then, and when he had said he could take care of Nyx if she wanted to, Kallistrade immediately rejected his offer and walked away with the baby, telling little Nyx all the things she would show him one day when he grew up, all the seas she would take him to.

They had become inseparable since then. Nyx had fallen completely in love with his aunt, and the only time anyone would catch the mighty and dreaded Captain Devilsbane showing off her sweet bone, was when she was with her nephew.

But that had only made goodbyes even harder. As Kallistrade was regularly traveling all throughout the continent.

“Who would’ve said, that the oh-so-mighty Captain Devilsbane would have such a soft spot for babies,” Azriel laughed, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest, and a broad smile while looking at his mate and nephew playing together.

“Don’t say that, he gets jealous, it’s only with this sweet little baby, right, little kraken? Only with you,” she approached the baby with a childlike smile on her face, while lowering her tone of voice ever so slightly.

“Softie,” Azriel mocked, and Kallistrade sent him a dead glare, nothing compared to her previous smile.

“Shut up, I saw you yesterday doing an airplane with a spoon to get him to eat,” the smile in Azriel’s face vanished, and it was Kallistrade’s turn to smiled proudly.

“We’re not talking about this with anyone.”

“Ever,” she laughed, confirming.

They both could have the biggest soft spot for Nyx, but like hell they would willingly admit it to their mocking friends.

It had been their night to take care of Nyx, since Kallistrade was leaving today for a mission in the western part of the Continent, they had offered to babysit so Rhys and Feyre could get a day off.

It was not often that they did babysit all day, since their house turned into a mad house with neither of them knowing what to do in some situations, but Kallistrade always missed her nephew when she was away, so having him a day —even tho it was always a hell of a ride—, didn’t hurt from time to time.

They would not be doing it again tho, in a long, long time. Nyx had recently learn how to walk, and it had progressively gotten worst when he started running. She had never ran so much in circles trying to catch a baby like last night. And Azriel had had to make his shadows envelop Nyx at all times in case he fell or ran into something. Poor shadows had gotten many hits, and they too didn’t want to repeat the occasion again.

“How was it?” When they arrived to the River Estate to drop Nyx off, Rhys had a cheeky smile on his lips when he saw how tired they looked.

“You are a-” Feyre raised an eyebrow to Kallistrade, reminding her of the presence of the little baby. “A son of the holy Cauldron and Mother. A warning that he could run now would’ve been nice!”

Rhysand laughed, taking his son in his arms and looking at him with proudness shining like starts in his night-sky eyes.

“I did not mentioned it?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Ups, my bad.”

“You’re lucky Nyx is present, because I have a ton of colorful words to describe you right now.”

Rhysand laughed again, and left a sonorous kiss on his son’s head, that made the little toddler laugh.

“We’re sorry,” Feyre said with a smile, shining so glowy that Kallistrade couldn’t help but wink at her friend who had most certainly had sex.

“You’re forgiven. Considering I’m leaving now, and I’m gonna miss this little one.”

Nyx immediately stoped smiling at his father and turned his head to his aunt when he heard the word “leaving”.

“Aunt Lis, no!” He cried, and tried to reach out for her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, little kraken, I have work to do, and people to scare,” that did not help at all, and Nyx started crying for his aunt, so much so that Rhys had to let him go. “I promise I will be back soon with many many presents, ok?” When Kallistrade took the baby, she rocked him in her arms, trying to calm the salty tears that fell over his chubby cheeks.

And sure as hell she would live up to that promise. As she always did. There wasn’t a single travel, as small as it may be, where Kallistrade did not bring her nephew a ton of presents.

“Come on, now, sweetie, your aunt has to go,” Feyre picked up her son from the pirate’s arms and smiled adoringly as she watched her son shake one his little hands while wiping his tears with the other.

“Bye bye, aunt Lis,” his little sobs made all the three adults’ hearts melt.

Kallistrade lowered her hat in farewell to her nephew and his parents, Rhys and Feyre smiled at her and wished her a safe travel before turning around to go back home. While Azriel kissed his mate one last time before she boarded her ship.

Little Nyx watched with read eyes as his aunts ship sailed away, and he did not stay happy about it.

𓆉｡˚ ✧

“Rhys!” When Rhysand heard his mate scream out for him, he stood up from his desk so fast his chair fell to the floor and stormed out of his office with Azriel and Cassian following right behind him.

The three of them had been sharing a drink when they heard Feyre’s scream, and now stormed to Nyx’s nursery, where the female was.

“Feyre!” When Rhys bursted in, he saw his High Lady looking exasperated everywhere, and his baby was nowhere to be seen. “What happened?”

“He did it!” She said without even looking at the three males that looked confused.

“He did what, darling?” Mor, Elain and Amren had soon arrived, and were looking as worried as the three Illyrians.

“Nyx! He learned how to winnow! And now I can’t find him anywhere.”

Oh, good Mother…

Everyone looked at each other and sighed, they gad been dreading this day for months now.

They all took a different part of the estate to search, and Feyre alerted Nesta via daementi to look out wherever she could as well. Now practically everyone was in desperate search of the little heir.

“He’s not anywhere! I can’t find him!” Feyre desperately said after some time of looking.

“Feyre darling, calm down, we’ll-“

“Blimey, this kid learns fast,” both Feyre and Rhys heard on their heads, and instantly recognized that pirate slang. “Relax, he’s with me, landed right on my freshly washed deck.”

Both parents relaxed significantly, embracing each other with heavy sighs. When they parted, Feyre couldn’t help but to start laughing, and Rhysand followed right away.

“Did you find…? Uhhh, what’s going on?” Cassian entered the room with Azriel, then the others came in too with confused expressions.

“Have they…lost it?” Questioned Mor, and they all looked at each other as if confirming that theory.

“It’s ok, guys, don’t fall into insanity, we’ll find him,” Cassian tried to speak over the laughter of his High Lord and Lady.

“Don’t worry,” Feyre calmed her laughter to speak to the group. “He’s ok.”

“Did you find him?” Azriel asked, looking around for his nephew.

“No, Lis did. Or more like he found her.”

𓆉｡˚ ✧

“I want to see my own reflection in this floors, Gio,” Kallistrade ordered to the male mopping. “For the next you think it’s a good idea to throw up on my deck after too much rum, you think it twice.”

“Aye aye, Captain,” the male grunted, surely with a hangover.

Kallistrade went to check on the weather report with Maddox, when suddenly, a loud cry made everyone on deck turn their attention away.

“Mother’s tits!”

Kallistrade rushed to Gio, founding the great surprise of a little giggling toddler sliding in the wet wood of the deck.

“I’m sorry, Captain, he yest appeared outa nowhere,” the male pointed at the winged toddler, and Kallistrade couldn’t help but burst out into laughter.

She went to pick up the child, whose face went red when his aunt lifted him, giving her a look that said he knew he had done something bad.

“You naughty little sea monster.”

She informed Rhys and Feyre, who surely were losing their minds, that Nyx was with her, and after hey told her Azriel would be there soon to pick him up, she took the little boy to her cabin and sat him at her desk.

Nyx had grabbed her hat and put it on himself, and the sight of it was enough to make Kallistrade’s ruthless heart melt.

“I want to travel the seas with you, aunt Lis!” The child mumbled, and Kallistrade laughed sweetly, while she watched him try to use her telescope.

“On day you will, my little kraken, one day you will.”

#dark tides #a court of thorns and roses #acotar #acomaf #acosf #acowar #acotar fanfic #acotar fanfiction #acotar oc #azriel #kallistrade x azriel #azriel fic #azriel fanfic #azriel x reader #azriel x you #azriel x oc #azriel shadowsinger #azriel acotar #tales of oceans and shadows #high lord rhysand #rhysand acotar #rhys #rhysand #feyre #feyre archeron #nesta archeron #elain archeron #cassian #cassian acotar #mor acotar

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

zhongli x reincarnated gn!reader imagine on my mind today ー

as the oldest of the seven and someone who has had been a deity even before his time as an archon

zhongli has had many titles over the centuries: warrior god, lord of geo, groundbreaker, god of contracts. as the oldest of the seven, it was no surprise. he existed long before the seven even came to be and he remembered much of it. he remembered the battles and the adepti who fought by his side

he remembered the many gods that once roamed the land too. he remembered gentle havria who couldn’t bring herself to harm a fly let alone another individual. he remembers intellectual guizhong who bestowed her followers with knowledge and technical contraptions

and he remembers them. 

amur, god of festivals and mirth and soother of the dead. while many historians in liyue debated over amur and which nation presently housed what would have been their domain had they been alive, all could agree that amur was a kind god respected by their people. a wielder of the power of dendro, knowing all too well the cycle of life and death and desired their people to live their lives to the full extent of their brief lives

“all things return to the earth. mortals, animals, plants and even we the divine. in that, we are all very much equal” was transcribed on their domain. some historians found it disrespectful for even a god to say. what sort of archon would such a lackadaisical god be had they managed to take a seat at the seven? some argued, however, that amur’s words held truth to it, especially after the death of rex lapis

“i would have liked to see what sort of archon amur would have been.” the 77th director of the wangsheng funeral parlor exclaimed one particular day, her red eyes full of intrigue. “they’d have understood my desire to promote my business.”

“from what is known of them,” the corner of zhongli’s lips turned into a small but fond smile. “i believe the two of you would have gotten along. one lesser known story of amur...” he then trailed off, recounting a few tales most anyone could find should they happen to find an old book

but zhongli remembered the god that inspired those tales; playful yet knowing amur. they weren’t the most powerful god, but they were content.

they crafted instruments and taught their followers how use them, created grove after grove of fruit, and when a celebration arose in response to a bountiful harvest, it was no surprise to zhongli that amur would be in disguise dancing with their followers

amur who would call him a “blockhead” like barbatos and welcome him to eat the fruits of their domain in the same breath

amur who would look at their dying blooms with the same proud eyes they created them with because even they fell, their death would lead to new life

“we’re compatible.” amur whispered softly one particular evening zhongli - morax - crafted, cupping morax’s own earth filled ones. the bright green of dendro colored their hands and just like that, the dirt he held filled with sprouts. amur’s warm gaze traveled from their sprout and dirt covered hands to zhongli’s eyes. “geo and dendro need each other for life to thrive. that makes us quite compatible.”

“you confuse yourself for a mortal” he replied after a moment of silence, pulling his hands away gently. “you tell them that we’re equal

“we look quite human to me.” amur replied airly

“we’re not human, we’re better”

“stronger we might be, you old blockhead, but when it comes down to it, we can be as imperfect and as flawed as mortals” amur’s words were gentle, a small smile still on their face.

soon after that conversation, battles to be one of the seven erupted across the continent and many of those familiar faces were lost one by one.

“don’t worry about me, morax.” when was it he approached amur in warning? when the battle was coming toward a bloody close? no, it was after he’d caught word of what happened to havria after her constant retreating from the battle. slain by her own people, a tragic end. 

“why morax,” amur had smirked, eyes twinkling. “are you worried about me? i don’t think even that carefree sylph from mondstadt would do something like that.” amur continued wryly and with the temperament of his younger years, zhongli snapped.

“this isn’t a game, amur. not fighting isn’t an option. the fight will come to you whether you want it to or not.” amur knew this, they had to have known this. amur was many things, stupid wasn’t one of them. “contrary to how you act, i know you’re aware you can’t run forever.” zhongli remembered telling amur bluntly. “you can’t shelter your people forever. 

for the first time since he had known them, amur’s smile had faded. their eyes were dull and they looked tired, weary. “of course i know, i’m no fool, morax.” they’d whispered. it was like the centuries they’d been alive had caught up to them in one moment. “try as i might, it’ll do no good. i’d end up like havria.”

“let me-” zhongli, morax, had began before stopping promptly. let me what? let me protect you? why would i- 

“don’t you worry about me, morax.” amur smiled when he didn’t continue. “i’ll be fine. i’ll move my people somewhere they can be safe and i’ll join the battle. i swear on my people, however, i’ll not make an enemy out of you.”

“... i wasn’t worried you would.”

they looked pleased when he said that. “good. i look forward to being seated at the seven with you.” their smile was strained as the words left their lips, as if even they themselves didn’t believe in their abilities. “many look down on dendro. that rat osial being one of them. i bet he’d be rolling in despair and rage if there was a dendro archon rather than him and his silly pools.”

zhongli couldn’t find it in himself to laugh at your jokes

“i’ll see you again on the other side of this war, i promise.” and against everything in his body screaming to not let you go, he left to continue fighting his own battle

six others rose to celestia to claim the thrones they’d been promised if they came out victorious. amur was not one of them. none other than osial had laid them, and their people, to waste until all that remained was what were few traces of their civilization. 

i made a wrong choice. maybe if he had a better understanding of mortal emotions, he might have been able to better label the affection he felt for them. perhaps he would have stopped you, would have urged you to join your people with liyue

a week after his newly established position as the irrefutable lord of geo, he visited your favorite grove. “you’ll be pleased to know,” he poured a cup of wine amur would never drink. “a dendro archon came to be after all.”

then zhongli meets you and it felt like the world stopped. you were a traveler from fontaine trying your luck with liyue’s branch of the adventurer’s guild. you met ms tao on the way back from a procession and the two of you struck it off before hu tao brought you to see the parlor as a guest.

“i’m (y/n) from petrichor.” you introduced yourself as but zhongli only saw amur. there was nothing but amur in your skin color and and hair to the proudly brandished dendro vision you sported on your hip. “and you must be mr zhongli, i’ve finally seen you. met you!” you then corrected yourself in embarrassment. “i’m sorry, i don’t know why i worded things like that”

it’s wonderful to finally see you too. he thought.

to her you laugh that familiar laugh and to see you smile that familiar smile. even your grimace was familiar as he watched you speak of osial with an unnatural amount of unkempt for a non-native of liyue. “it just rubs me the wrong way. who decides to attack an innocent city just because they’re still angry at the god who sealed them away?” you asked zhongli over dinner. “it’s childish. people can say what they want but this just proves that gods and humans have a lot more in common than they think- oh but don’t tell those historian friends of yours i said that, they’d kill me”

“your secret is safe with me” zhongli vowed seamlessly much to your immediate relief

“you know, we’re pretty compatible mr. zhongli!” you grinned widely after a successful commission you asked him to accompany you on.

“yes, we planned a thorough strategy to dealing with those treasure hoarders.”

you snorted though you looked more amused than exasperated. “not just that.” you gestured back and forth between the gold and bright green visions between you both. “people can say what they want about geo and dendro; rocks and flowers kick ass”

you nudged the man playfully, prepared to ask him nonchalantly if agreed with you only to be taken aback by the warmth in zhongli’s eyes. “one could argue that geo and dendro are the most compatible of elements. with plants, earth can’t host life and without earth, the seeds of those same plants can’t take root to grow. they need each other to thrive.”

“yeah i guess... that’s true.” you stared at zhongli with wide eyes, heart beating a million beats per second. suddenly the distant sight of a hydro slime was more compelling to look at. odd, it’s a bit blurry. you wiped at your eyes with the back of your hand, confused by the tears.

“(y/n)? are you alright?”

“i guess it’s just a bit bright out, that’s all.” you weren’t sure if you were trying to convince him more or yourself. “seriously, i’m alright. it’s just...” you appreciated how zhongli waited for you to find the right words. “i’ve never heard someone talk about... it just feels like i’ve been waiting for those words for a long time.”

i’m just being weird, don’t mind me you wanted to joke.

honestly, i’m kind of the town weirdo back home you wanted nonchalantly sing

large gloved but warm hands held one of your own tightly as golden brown gazed at you intently before you could do either of those things. “i’ll gladly say it to you many more times.”

#look she's writing #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin #zhongli x reader #reincarnation au.... or is it?? #that's the real question #decided god reader's name amur by combining amdusias and murmur #both of whom are dukes in the ars goetia #had to keep it on theme #a wild hu tao is also spotted #osial slander i guess lmao #reader is not the dendro archon #they didn't even get a chance smh #god!reader au

[dark-night-hero]

Imagine being Kaeya Alberich's significant other.

Imagine one of those days where you happened to walk around the city of Mondstadt. Not because you did not live in there but due to the fact you were rarely in the city to begin with due to being a merchant.

Imagine being away in the city for almost two months, people here and there greeting you upon seeing your face in which you return with a wave and a smile.

"Oh dear, you're back. A successful deal once again I suppose? Fufufu- Oh! Does Kaeya knew you're back already?" Lisa, a good friend of you asked.

Imagine shaking your head, closing the book you were silently reading around the headquarters library upon her question before pressing a finger in your lips, keeping it a secret as Lisa laugh and shakes her head.

Imagine looking up at the direction of the cathedral, brushing back your (hair color) locks as a gentle breeze passed by, taking a deep breath before going through the endless stairs that would lead you to were your lover is currently at.

Imagine forgetting your purpose upon arriving, emerging from the endless stairs sweating of how hot and tiring was it to climb up the stairs. Once again brushing back your hair, you mindlessly wnet and lean at stone railings to cool off and relax.

Imagine how shock your lover, the one who was currently in the middle of his speech when happened to catch a glimpse of your figure. Although he thought that he was just mistaken at first upon once catching a glimpse of that person emerging like an mindless corpse in the stairs,

Imagine the knights to be looking rather confused at their captain, the one who called them in front of the Favonius Cathedral today for an announcement and although the important details have already been said and was now at the ending remarks, that was strange to see their captain suddenly pause like that and frown.

Imagine one of the knights, his vice captain nudging his captain on his side to snap him out of it in which he did. But now he was rather looking like he was in a hurry as he cut of his speech short. And then his captain dash, he was about to call him out once again, about to ask why he was in such hurry but upon noticing the place- figure his captain was approaching. With a sigh, his vice captain properly dismiss the knights, something his captain forgot to do as he hurriedly went towards your unsuspecting form.

Imagine Kaeya, walking towards you in a hurry, eager to have you in his arms once again. He can't believe it. You're finally back after months of business travels around the continent. He truly missed his drinking buddy.

Imagine him, rather than hugging you, end up putting you on a headlock almost making you scream if it wasn't for a very familiar scent. A very familiar voice saying.

"Why didn't you tell me you're coming home ahead of schedule? I could have taken a day off to pick you up ya'know." He chuckle, still keeping you on a headlock as you pout. "I love the look on your face whenever you see me came back, makes me think you really missed me." You chuckle back, holding into his arms.

Imagine him looking down, only to see you already looking up at him your head hitting his chest as his arms loosely hugging you by your shoulder when he suddenly lean down to steal a kiss.

"Yah-!" Kiss "We're" kiss "in the-" kiss "eyes of-!" kiss "public-" kiss kiss kiss "Kaeya!" You withdraw yourself away from him, cheeks and ears flushed.

Imagine him laughing, messing with your hair as he pull you close with his free hand, now once again warped around his arms. Looking all happy to have you back in his arms again. It's been a long month after all without you by his side.

Imagine everyone around the two of you actually not minding it, looking at anywhere other than you two, minding their own business. After all they knew how the blue haired chivalry captain was worried and in love with you, looking rather gloomy whenever you went for business travel in other nation. So really, they do not mind at all. Rather they find it adorable and refreshing.

Ah, young love.

[ⓒdark-night-hero] 2022°

#so you see i got carried away lmao #genshin impact #genshin #genshin imagines #kaeya alberich #kaeya x reader #kaeya fluff #kaeya headcanons #genshin impact kaeya #kaeya x you

[belog-grada-crna-princeza]

Don't you realize you're not special? Don't you realize you're not above life? Everything you feel, someone has felt before. Everything you think, someone has thought before. Everything you fear, someone else also fears. There's 7.8 billion people on Earth right now. It's estimated that 117 billion people have existed so far. The size of the observable Universe is said to be 94 billion light years. Can you even grasp all these numbers? You're just a spec of dust. This moment is gifted to you, and the next one is never promised.

Don't you realize you're extremely special? Don't you realize you're the child of the Universe? Think of all the events that had to occur in this perfect sequence just for you to be here. Think of what would've happened if your mom chose to stay in the day she met your dad. Imagine if she had a headache the night you were conceived. If you were born less than 100 years ago, you could've easily died as a child from the flu or some other illness that couldn't be cured like we cure it today. Think about your grandparents, their grandparents... Think about the first humans, and their ancestors. Think about the depths of the oceans. Think about the making of continents. Think about the Big Bang. Can you think that far? You beat all the odds. Mathematics say you shouldn't be here, yet you are. You defeated all logic. No one else has your mind, your experiences, your exact combination of genes.. your fingerprints. No one is you, and that is your superpower. Literally.

Think about how small you are. Think about how large you are. Place your right hand on the left side of your chest. Feel the steady thumping of your heart. Feel the oxygen that fills your nostrils and travels down into your navel, then back up. Feel your bloodstream. Look around. Take in your surroundings. All the colors, the sounds, the smells. Feel this moment fully.

Realize the miracle you are. Realize the miracle around you. Then close your eyes and sink into the darkness. Realize how easily it could all be gone. Realize the next moment you could be nothing. Realize one day, that moment will happen. It's not: if. It's: when.

Then think about the deadlines you worry about. Think about that person that hasn't called you back. Think about the lady at the grocery store that was rude to you. Think about that girl in high school that spread those rumours about you. Think about the laundry that has to get done. Think about that apology you owe that person. Think about your fear of going to the gym because people will think you look stupid.

Think about all the ways you avoid life, you avoid experiences, emotions, people. Think about how you treat it all as a dress rehearsal, waiting for life to finally begin.

Well, it's here. You're living it. That is the only certainty you have.

What will you do with it?

-Katarina

#Life #existence #universe #Special #Thoughts #shower thoughts #meaning #death #Ego #Soul #spirituality #Philosophy #Big bang #Beloggradacrnaprinceza

[wolfcamellias]

Was thinking about the macaque spirit king again and remembered you did mention her in SKW assassins backstory post and that they trained under them.

So for an Idea for her backstory revolves around the fact that to the rest Aioli, FFM was Paradise on earth and was constantly invaded before wukong really made a name for himself. So, it's only imaginable what life was for for less lucky demon populations. The trope they belonged was in one of the worst parts of the continent and was constantly fighting for survival, let alone have time to really enjoy themselves at least to the extent of their FFM counterparts.

It's mostly that she was able not only to keep the physical and environmental threats at bay, but was about to shape what was once a personal hell for them into a strong safe haven that enabled them to thrive, creating the kingdom they know today as well as raising up to be the macaque spirit king. She's very much shaped by her experience being very reserved and a bit aloof to outsiders, which reflects in their cultural mindset with a few exceptions, can be seen as the opposite as FFM's. A bit of a everyone pulls there own weight, where only as strong as our weakness link type beat, but is still very put a high value on community and helping each other out and doesn't tolerates disingenuous actions or using others for your own gain, FFM mount definitely has a similar mindset, but I just they MSK kingdom takes it to a whole new level.

SWK and MSK could have met before the alliance was made through SKW travels since I like the idea of the area around their territory still being very rough and general being impressed with him making it through it by himself. She could find the FFM citizens abit annoying and the rest of her subjects to an extent, but also admits they have a bit of a charm to them, especially with what lengths to maintain a status that enables them to have that type of freedom, especially after the recovery from the fire.

As for her and macaque's checkered past, I can definitely say for as close as macaque came to his goal in jttw, especially fooling the gods to an extent, that wasn't his first time, mix that and the culture of MSK kingdom, it isn't an surprise it ended the way it did. He was mostly born or introduced in low on the totem pole, since if there are likely other six earred macaques and you where just named six earred macaque, you weren't cared for, I'm sorry. Likely caused trouble was the last straw was likely him trying to gain some power with his usually stick and possibly got other hurt or did in the process and they just took him by all six ears and threw him out. I think what really made her antagonistic towards him was the early days of him and SWK relationship and the eventual fall out. When was very much enraged when she found out he was welcomed at FFM and her catching word of his fondness for SWK just made the fire worse. She most likely tried everything in the book to take him out of it, but it continued. And after everything was said and done, their mind was set on SEM.

They was upset a SWK for not taking their warnings, but her angry and vitriol lays with SEM. He was given a second chance in their he wasn't completely deserving of and gave him everything and more, but in SWK moment of weakness and need was the first to turn against him, if it met getting what he wanted damn how it effects everyone else and his actions during and after proved that to her. Even, if and when he makes amends and him and SWK start again, she's going to give him credit where it's due, but she's never going to go beyond that and takes everything his does at face value and with a handful of salt. And I think they're saying would be "new coat, same starving dog. It will become despite at the slightest hardship and will be willing to bite the hand that nurtures it, if that means a meal." They're trying to be happy for SWK, but as soon as SEM slips up or reverts back, she will make sure it will be his last.

On a lighter note, LOVE the Idea of her and Nezha bounding over their distaste of macaque and even help her nephew with the means to torture his stepdad😂 she's truly the mean, opinionated childless rich lesbian auntie that always has a special new weapon to make your stepdad's life a bit more of a living hell as a treat.

FUNNILY ENOUGH I SAW HER AS AS SHE/THEY GAY!! but i love the final idea yes yes so TRUE

I LOVE ALL OF THIS SO MUCH??? I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!

I actually played around a little and made her a reincarnation (Su Yijun) and.. yknow if this was the MSK I wouldn't mind! (though i made them more soft spoken and empathic and selectively mute so 👀!!!)

Here they are:

I like the idea of her personality being more brash and outspoken in the past (like what you said) and then regaining that side of himself when he gets his memories back!

But i love this sm thank you for sharing it im FOAMING at the mouth at the idea of them being an uncle to Nezha PLEASE

#ask #macaque spirit king #oc: su yijun #YEAAA #doodles

[enddaysengine]

Yellow Musk Creeper (Paths Beyond)

While the Yeth Hound is a monster marinating in the OGL that I could see sticking around, the Yellow Musk Creeper is definitely out when the ORC version of Pathfinder lands. It’s a pity, cause I love this monster, but it’s a monster that D&D through and through, so it will fall by the wayside. 

That said, I could see a similar monster with a different name and stats rise to take its place. Yellow musk creepers are plants that take over hosts by planting seeds in their brains, effectively turning them into (non-undead) zombies under the creeper’s control. Even though I’ve never seen or played Last of Us, I know this body horror staple is having a moment right now, so hopefully Paizo has a plan waiting in the wings.

If you are looking for inspiration for using the yellow musk creeper - anything with parasitic plants or funguses will do the trick. Cordyceps funguses are the obvious IRL inspiration to draw from, but don’t sleep on other parasitic fungi or animals. A seed that devours and then germinates in the place of a person’s tongue is going to be creepy as heck. While terrifying, the creepers are mindless plants, so you can potentially find them on any plane with abundant vegetation, although they tend to take root where blood soaks the soil and corpses are common. Special note goes out to the Plane of Wood, which will debut in a few weeks. Given its theme, I imagine they have their fair share of yellow musk creepers. 

Despite stereotypes around the Inner Sea, religious practice in Osirion focuses on life, not death. One commoners do so is by creating corn mummies — unbaked clay figurines with seeds embedded inside. When buried, these germinate, symbolizing how death renews life throughout the planes. They also reflect one of Osiris’ planar allies, the celestial yellow musk creeper Rising Life, who oversees the great god’s purview of agriculture and can call the worthy dead to defend the living. 

The elven aiudara are well-known as portals across continents and even planets, but scholars ponder that these portals never seem to link planes today. Only the most learned elven artisans know a secret: Masham the Brash, a pupil of Candlaron the Sculptor, attempted to create a gate linking Kyonin to the Plane of Water. The so-called Lotusgate went wildly haywire, transforming it into a sentient yellow musk creeper that exists simultaneously in the Universe and on the elemental plane. The Lotusgate is still alive and hypothetically can be used to travel to the inner planes, but it is wily, wandering the Sellen River and avoiding elves as much as possible. 

There are many ways for an orc to challenge a god. Legends say that if they descend into Nar-Voth, there is a sacred grove of yellow musk creepers. By deliberately subjecting themselves to the creepers’ hypnotic pollen, then resisting the plants’ attempts to implant seeds, an orc can induce a hallucinogenic state that culminates in unleashing their true potential. The grove is real (and doesn’t just work for orcs) and completing the quest counts as a mythic trial, but the creepers themselves are also mythic and far deadlier than their counterparts on the surface. 

#plant #pathfinder #pathfinder2e #paths beyond #plot hooks #world building #rpg inspiration

[coochiequeens]

If men can’t be dedicated enough to science to go for a few months without harassing, assaulting or exposing women to porn maybe they are the ones who should be discouraged from entering Antarctica.

For almost as long as the continent has been known of, Antarctica, a wild, white expanse of ice shelves, glaciers and mountainous ridges at the foot of the globe, has been the domain of men.

But images in the popular imagination of bearded men boldly heading into snowstorms could slowly be fading into the whiteness.

Today, women lead expeditions and research stations, make up large parts of support teams on the continent, and are active in leading policy conversations.

Reports uncovering sexual harassment and assault in overwhelmingly male environments, combined with a drive to recognise women’s contributions and efforts to overcome barriers to entry have all contributed to a gradual cultural change.

“We need to decide what kind of a future we want to see for Antarctica, and which people we want making decisions about that future,” said Dr Hanne Nielsen, a lecturer in Antarctic law and governance at the University of Tasmania.

“Then we can decide how we make sure that those people have – and retain – a seat at the table.”

Antarctica was first sighted in January 1820 by a Russian expedition to the far south, and the first women to visit the region did so with husbands working on whaling vessels during the first half of the 20th century.

“The human history of Antarctica is really quite recent, but the history of women being able to travel there is even more recent than that – but that didn’t mean that women didn’t want to travel to the far south of the globe,” said Dr Nielsen.

Predictably, attitudes to women’s participation lagged far behind.

When the Americans Edith Ronne and Jennie Darlington mooted the idea of staying on the continent over the winter of 1948 – which they eventually did – Darlington’s husband told her that “there are some things women don’t do … They don’t become pope or president – or go down to the Antarctic.”

The first woman to conduct scientific research in Antarctica was the Soviet geologist Maria Klenova in 1957, but her work did not immediately lead to more female scientists in the far south: many Antarctic programmes argued that women’s presence could prove disruptive.

In 1969, more than a decade after the US established a permanent presence on Antarctica, an all-women scientific team deployed there prompted a New York Times reporter to dub their work “an incursion” into the “largest male sanctuary remaining on this planet”.

Women have also been agents of sovereignty to assert territorial claims.

An Argentinian, Silvia Morello, then seven months pregnant, was flown to the country’s Esperanza Base and, on 7 January 1978, gave birth to a son, Emilio Palma, who became the first person to be born on Antarctica.

But for those women who wanted to study the continent, role models have been few and far between.

“When I was in school, science wasn’t really a career girls would think about,” said Catalina Silva, 23, a marine biology student at Chile’s Universidad Austral in Valdivia, where more than half of her 2018 intake were women.

“Marine biology didn’t seem achievable because you’d just see men in science. If you don’t see people like you in the places you want to reach, it’s hard to know where to aim.”

This summer season, she spent a month at Chile’s Escudero Base working as a lab assistant, sifting through seawater samples searching for isopods – the subject of her thesis.

The Chilean biologist Dr Leyla Cárdenas, 47, came to Antarctica for the first time 13 years ago and has returned to the continent several times to further her research on ecosystems in the far south.

In 2020, she was named the first ever female dean of her university’s science faculty, but says that stereotypes still persist for women studying the continent.

“Who’s going to cook? Women, of course. Who will carry the heavy kit? The men,” said Dr Cárdenas. “That’s how it’s always been, defined by gender roles.”

Before leaving Punta Arenas to work or stay at Chilean bases, every member of each expedition must complete an induction on harassment protocols and awareness.

Even so, this year two support staff members were sent home following incidents.

While women’s experiences of harassment and assault in remote Antarctic research stations have long been known, two damning reports published at the end of last year threw the issues into stark relief.

In October 2022, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) said it was “appalled by the reports of sexual harassment, assaults, and stalking”highlighted by its study; and a report into diversity, equity and inclusion within the Australian Antarctic Program described a “culture of widespread, low-level sexual harassment that permeates stations”.

That macho culture was typified by the ceiling of a hut at Australia’s Mawson Station which had been plastered with nearly 100 pornographic images.

Both reports make for harrowing reading.

In the NSF’s document, 95% of the women interviewed knew someone who had experienced assault or harassment within the Antarctic programme. One interviewee was quoted as saying that “[sexual assault and sexual harassment] are just facts of life [here], just like the fact that Antarctica is cold and the wind blows.”

Among a series of incidents highlighted, one male supervisor reportedly attempted to break into female colleagues’ rooms using his master keys. One woman was so frightened she carried a hammer around base with her.

Following the publication of the NSF report, the organisation says it created a single, confidential point of contact for victims, increased on-ice support services, put listening sessions in place and enhanced physical security measures.

Nevertheless, diversity and inclusion still have a long way to go on Antarctica.

With such high turnover of scientific and support staff in every summer cohort, the female population of Antarctica at any given time is difficult to judge.

However, one 2016 study found that 60% of early-career polar researchers are women. Retaining them in the field is another matter.

“I think it is important not only to increase the number of women working in Antarctica, but also the number from different geographic, linguistic or disciplinary backgrounds,” said Dr Nielsen.

“The more perspectives you have the richer that conversation can be – and the more likely we are to be able to respond to the huge challenges facing the polar regions.”

#Women in science #Men setting back science by excluding other scientists based on sex #Maria Klenova #Dr Layla Cardenas #Australia’s Manson Station

[shorthistorian]

Hey Jordan, @antique-symbolism referred me to you for a history question I've got about a story I'm writing that might help out some other writers as well. I've got a pseudo-historical setting that lacks telecommunication and a formal postal system, but the narrative requires a good deal of messages being sent back and forth between characters. I've got couriers and pages in the story, but they're a little overworked! I was wondering if you had any insights into historical postal systems and how people sent and received messages and packages before standardized addresses, or between people who were traveling/lacking a permanent residence. How on earth did pages and couriers find people w/o modern ways of tracking people down? Thanks!!

Hi! I love questions like this and @antique-symbolism knows that. They are like pumpkins full of ground beef she tosses into my enclosure for enrichment.

Precise answers to your questions are going to depend on time and place, but since you are in a pseudohistorical setting, we have some wiggle room. I’ll be leaning on the work of Professor Lindsay O’Neill, who I had the pleasure of being a TA for during my grad work at USC. You’ve already identified the big issues at play here. A formal postal service is a pretty crazy and modern thing that we take utterly for granted. For a small fee (for letters at least) you can send something ANYWHERE in the world, even to very remote or unpopulated places. That’s wild and it doesn’t happen overnight or without a lot of organization and investment. For a long time, governments had their own couriers and postal routes, but they were not supposed to be carrying personal correspondence. (An analogy here would be ARPANET, the precursor to the modern internet developed by the US Department of Defense.)

Prior to true postal services, a letter writer had a few options. One could pay a carrier to transport a letter or ask a friend to carry one along with them if they were going the right direction. As today, a letter might need to make multiple stops along its journey or be passed between multiple people. The farther off the beaten track someone lived, the more time and money it would take for the letter to arrive -- if it did at all. O’Neill mentions in her book The Opened Letter that writers regularly made reference to letters “finding” their recipients as in, “when this letter finds you” (24). It was far from a guarantee that it would! [Side note: It is worthwhile to consider how letters and goods are moving. Overland travel, at least until the wide implementation of railroads, was slow and expensive. Water transport was far cheaper and far faster, like months faster, even when moving longer distances. One could easily imagine a setting where post offices only sit along water routes and inlanders need to travel to pick up their mail.]

So what about your story? Details will have to depend on your exact setting, but here’s a few ideas. If letters are as important to the story as you say, maybe that is a reason to beef up the postal infrastructure. This doesn’t have to be a full, government-run, continent spanning postal service, but if your characters are associated with a larger organization, maybe that body invests in regular carriers. Alternatively, your characters might just be willing to pay the money required for quick couriers.

Door-to-door postal service is a more modern development (starting in a handful of major cities in 1863 in the US, for example), so in your story, travelers or people without permanent addresses aren’t at as much of a disadvantage as you might think. Anybody receiving mail would have to retrieve their letters or packages at the post office. Alternatively, if you wanted to reach a wandering friend, you could send a letter somewhere else like a hotel or a business where they could check for it.

As I see it, here’s the bottom line: the mail is, by default, slow, expensive, and unreliable. If it isn’t those things, then there must be some systems in place to improve it. What those systems are and how your characters interact with them will reflect the details of your setting.

I hope that is marginally helpful. If you have more specifics of the time/place you want to emulate, I’d be happy to answer more questions or direct you to other resources. Thanks for getting in touch!

#history #writing #historian for hire

[rockislandadultreads]

Travel Through Time: Sci-fi picks

Thrust by Lidia Yuknavitch

As rising waters--and an encroaching police state--endanger her life and family, a girl with the gifts of a carrier travels through water and time to rescue vulnerable figures from the margins of history Lidia Yuknavitch has an unmatched gift for capturing stories of people on the margins--vulnerable humans leading lives of challenge and transcendence. Now, Yuknavitch offers an imaginative masterpiece: the story of Laisve, a motherless girl from the late 21st century who is learning her power as a carrier, a person who can harness the power of meaningful objects to carry her through time. Sifting through the detritus of a fallen city known as the Brook, she discovers a talisman that will mysteriously connect her with a series of characters from the past two centuries: a French sculptor; a woman of the American underworld; a dictator's daughter; an accused murderer; and a squad of laborers at work on a national monument. Through intricately braided storylines, Laisve must dodge enforcement raids and find her way to the present day, and then, finally, to the early days of her imperfect country, to forge a connection that might save their lives--and their shared dream of freedom. A dazzling novel of body, spirit, and survival, Thrust will leave no reader unchanged.

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

What if you could take a vacation to your past? On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn't just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it's her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai

You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed . . . because it wasn't necessary. Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down. Utterly blindsided by an accident of fate, Tom makes a rash decision that drastically changes not only his own life but the very fabric of the universe itself. In a time-travel mishap, Tom finds himself stranded in our 2016, what we think of as the real world. For Tom, our normal reality seems like a dystopian wasteland. But when he discovers wonderfully unexpected versions of his family, his career, and—maybe, just maybe—his soul mate, Tom has a decision to make. Does he fix the flow of history, bringing his utopian universe back into existence, or does he try to forge a new life in our messy, unpredictable reality? Tom’s search for the answer takes him across countries, continents, and timelines in a quest to figure out, finally, who he really is and what his future—our future—is supposed to be.

The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family--and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship U.S.S. Libra—a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows first-hand the mental trauma of time-travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence. Determined to find the missing girl and driven by a troubling connection from her own past, Moss travels ahead in time to explore possible versions of the future, seeking evidence to crack the present-day case. To her horror, the future reveals that it's not only the fate of a family that hinges on her work, for what she witnesses rising over time's horizon and hurtling toward the present is the Terminus: the terrifying and cataclysmic end of humanity itself.

#science fiction #sci-fi #scifi #fantasy #time travel #adult fiction #dystopia #dystopian fiction #to read #tbr #booklr #booktok #reading recommendations #Book Recommendations #library books #books to read #highly recommend

[mmtions]

ooooooh, listen, listen, listen 👀👀 forehead kisses.

i know. i know, not groundbreaking or particularly original BUT buddie forehead kisses that start as a joke.

you know, because buck is taller and eddie does NOT do an amazing grumpy cat face whenever this reality of life is brought upon him and so one day they're bickering about why eddie moved his own! pots to an impractical? bah! cupboard which, it's his kitchen for crying out loud stop laughing christopher he could be using the pots you don't know, and buck just smooches him on the forehead unprovoked and goes: "sure, jan" and stop laughing christopher you do not understand that reference does no one respect me in this house.

but then it keeps happening? like, when eddie drops buck off at the apartment? and after a bad call? and somehow buck being taller than him stopped being something to pretend to be upset about? haaaaaaalp

Dear my beloved anon,

I received your message in the year of our lord 2022, a day past the first week of May, and I was captivated by it. My, your way with words! ‘Tis better than any serial coming from the London post these days. I wish there was more; and, now I must confess, I was tempted to write it! As a response, can you imagine? A whole fanfiction about your delightful subject matter. I believe it might have been at least twenty and five hundred words.

Unfortunately, my beloved anon, as I write this reply, it is also the weekly day of rest. I also partook in perhaps a little too much brandy last evening - I am a lady and so cannot withhold it well, especially when drunk to games and before a night into central town - and I am still feeling the fevers and fatigue today. My mother has suggested I come to the coast to recover in fresh air, whilst my flatmate has instead suggested ‘sucking it up.’

I have therefore decided to include this - oh, I think the youth call them headcanons? Or prompts on the continent - in my next fanfiction. Why, there shall be so many forehead kisses! More than candles in our homes! More than wheels on a carriage, and more too than hooves on the horse that pulls it. I shall write this fanfiction soon, certainly before the summer solstice, though perhaps after I see Mister E. Diaz reveal his queerness in two episodes time in our most favourite serial. (I always thought there was something a little different, a little queer, about that man!) Rest assured, you will receive your forehead kisses in due course, even if I must travel to you myself to deliver them, wherever you currently reside.

Thinking of you, eternally,

mmtion

#would it have been easier to write a fic? yes #but my tummy hurts and I’m feeling loopy #anon please keep sending headcanons this made me feel squishy inside #and I promise to respond to any others without silliness

[travelengeek]

The Role of Flight Itinerary Mapping in Global Tourism Trends

Navigating the Skies: The Advent of Flight Mapping

Long ago, before airplanes could whisk us away across oceans and continents, adventurers and explorers used the stars and paper maps to guide their way. But as the world spun forward, something magical happened. We discovered the power of computers and the internet, transforming how we see and understand our journeys. Suddenly, with a few clicks, we could see the paths of airplanes, tracing invisible lines across a digital globe. This was the beginning of something big—a way to map our flights, making travel easier and even more exciting.

Flightmapper.io: Charting New Territories in Travel

Enter Flightmapper.io, a shining beacon in the world of travel. Like a treasure map for the modern explorer, it offers a glimpse into the maze of air routes that connect the corners of our globe. With Flightmapper.io, anyone can become a cartographer of their adventures, plotting the flights they’ve taken or dreaming up new voyages. It's more than just a map; it's a canvas, waiting for travelers to paint their journeys across it.

The Traveler's Compass: Mapping as a Planning Tool

Imagine holding a compass that points you not just north, but towards your next adventure. This is what mapping your flights can do. It's not only about connecting the dots from where you are to where you want to be. It's about inspiration—seeing all the places you could explore and planning your journey with excitement. With tools like Flightmapper.io, travelers can weave their dreams into itineraries, turning "what ifs" into "let's go."

The Global Tapestry: Understanding Tourism Through Maps

Our world is woven from countless stories, each journey adding a thread to the global tapestry of travel. Flight maps do more than show us how to get from A to B. They reveal trends—like rivers of travelers flowing between landmarks and cities. Through the lens of Flightmapper.io, we see not just where people are going but how the world is coming together, one flight at a time.

The Community Connection: Sharing and Discovery

In a world where every flight tells a story, imagine a place where these tales come together. Flightmapper.io is this place—a bustling digital crossroads where travelers from all walks of life share their journeys. Here, every route is a narrative waiting to be discovered. As we explore maps created by others, we're invited into their adventures, learning not just about new destinations but about the myriad ways we can experience our planet. It's a reminder that in the vast expanse of the globe, we're all connected through our love of exploration.

The Impact of Visualization: Engaging with Places and People

Maps are more than just tools; they're windows into the heart of our travels. With each line drawn across the screen, we're not just plotting courses but connecting moments, memories, and dreams. Flightmapper.io turns these connections into vivid tapestries of our lives. Every destination becomes a chapter of a larger story, rich with emotion and discovery. As we visualize our past and future travels, we're doing more than just navigating; we're celebrating the joy of journeying and the bonds it creates.

Beyond Borders: Maps and the Future of Tourism

As the world evolves, so do the patterns of our travels. Maps have the power to forecast new trends, revealing how the paths we choose today shape the destinations of tomorrow. Flightmapper.io doesn't just capture where we've been; it hints at where we're headed, both individually and collectively. This insight is invaluable, not just for curious adventurers but for all those who envision a future where travel is more sustainable, mindful, and inclusive. By mapping our flights, we're charting a course towards a more connected and respectful global community.

Bridging the Gap: Flightmapper.io in the Age of Global Connectivity

In an age where distance feels shorter than ever, Flightmapper.io stands as a testament to the power of technology to bring us closer. It's more than a mapping tool; it's a bridge between cultures, ideas, and dreams. With every update, it becomes easier for anyone, anywhere, to map their flights and share their stories. This isn't just about making travel easier; it's about making it more meaningful, forging connections that span the globe and reminding us that, in the vast tapestry of humanity, every journey matters.

#flight #flight planning #trip planning #travel planning #flightmapper #flight mapper #itinerary schedule #itinerary planning #itinerary mapping #flights #aircraft #spacecraft #flight map #flight mapping

[canceledthoughtz]

We met when I was 8 years old and you changed my life forever. The moment we met, I knew I was in love. From the 1st time I touched you, I knew I could spend the rest of my days and nights with you without giving it a second thought. You taught me many life lessons, from success to failure to the importance of hard work and perseverance. You were there through all my ups and downs and I thank you for all our memories. We traveled parts of the continent that I’d never imagined and you blessed me with experiences that’ll last a lifetime. Basketball, you kept me off the streets of gang infested Chicago and for that I’m eternally grateful. I take full responsibility for the turning point in our relationship. I allowed the distractions of the world to poison our relationship and for that, I’m truly sorry. If I had been mature enough to love you the way you loved me then perhaps we’d still be together today. But, life doesn’t always give us the outcomes we desire. particularly when we’re uncertain about what those outcomes are. The most painful moment of my life was when I finally understood that our relationship was coming to end. Today, the most fun I have is watching you bring others the same joy you brought me for so many years. Basketball, you are the only thing I’ve ever been in love with. You taught me what the concept of love is. You taught me that love is something you don’t have think too hard about, its something you just know. Love is something you can wake up and do every minute of every day and be enamored with in perpetuity. Today, at age 26, its crazy to say but I wish we had more time together. But know this, no matter what, I will love you always!

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[talldarkandroguesome]

22nd of Frostfalls, Loredas

Today we went for a country ride as a family. The trees have turned a lovely shade of red, blushing like autumn gave them a sudden kiss and whispered words of a debaucherous nature. The ground is scattered with those that have fallen, crisp and dry, so that the guar and carriage make a delightful sound as it goes over the leaf dusted road. I had to bundle up Cariel with my own cloak as hers was not enough to keep her warm with the chill of the wind.

Kuna refused one, even as her cheeks were whipped by the wind as we went to the point they looked akin to the leaves on the trees. Sildras picked up one of the fallen leaves, one which was vibrantly touched with red, orange, and green. He said that it looked like it was painted. I said it had been, only that it was nature who had done so. He laughed and told me I was being very silly.

I mocked hurt and told him that I was being honest. For nature had the greatest brush of all and every color at her disposal. A true artist who painted Nirn in her whims.

Avon told me he was going to send me to Solitude if I continued to wax poetically, for it was more pathetic than I thought and could clearly use some brushing up on the art.

The children looked to see how I would react, so I threw myself dramatically back against the seat of the carriage and decried how unappreciated a real artist was. I told Sildras to watch out, for such was his fate as a young painter.

Avon laughed and the children followed suit. I joined in and we all had a grand time. We stopped at a small private gardens that is situated near where the road forks between the main road westward and the northward road to Mzithumz. It was set up by a retired member of the Mages Guild who wanted a sort of Arboretum where he could experiment with the many saplings and seeds he had been given over the years from his travels. This is the time of year where he allows people to come and see the ways in which agriculture is performed in other parts of Tamriel and he has a lovely place with grand rows of apple trees from Skyrim and squashes and gourds from Blackmarsh and pomegranates from Cyrodill, and so many other bounties of autumn from the rest of the continent. 

Sildras brought along a notebook to take notes for his own reasons. I think they are studying something to do with taking records of your research and he is using this as an opportunity to practice.

We strolled his many gardens and mock farm plots. The children hand fed the exotic animals of abroad such as dogs, goats, cows, and even a pig.

There were a surprisingly bountiful number of insects, at least in the sunnier areas. There was even what appeared to be an apiary on the grounds, though we were not taken towards it. I suppose it is the time of year when the bees are quieting down until spring. But there were still some butterflies and their mimics, some brilliant metallic wasps, fuzzy turquoise bees, a variety of flies, and even a grasshopper. I saw one very good sized orb weaver and thought that it must be my Prince’s way of saying I was on the correct path. That I had done well. We took our lunch upon a small hill under a beautiful array of maples, whose leaves were every color of the season. One small leaf fell into my glass of wine and I thought of how absolutely it encapsulates the paintings of the season, the glass of wine with the maple leaf. How many thousands of screens I have seen painted in the precise manner I found myself in.

After lunch we went through some of the regional gardens, including a conservatory with the starkly alien looking plants of the deserts of Alik’r and Elsweyr. We looked at the towering tree ferns and mangroves of Black Marsh and I thought of those times trudging through swampland to free those wrongfully stolen from their families by the Dres or Telvanni and we would stop to avert notice and you would turn and see the most beautiful flora one might imagine, just there growing out of the mud. I suppose it is easier when you do not need to concern yourself with things such as leeches.

At the end, our guide was generous enough to allow each of the children to pick one fruit or vegetable of their choosing. Sildras chose a pomegranate. The girls were worried about taking anything from any of the trees, but compromised by taking the fruit which had fallen on the ground. Kuna found an apple which must have fallen recently, for it had none of the mold or insect holes otherwise expected. Cariel took a baby pumpkin which she found somewhere along the walk.

Avon and I purchased some dried apples and pear preserves that were made from the fruit of the gardens and which we are told the cost of which goes towards maintaining the grounds.

We were not even halfway home when Cariel fell sound asleep, tuckered out from running around the gardens. Kuna, despite her pride, did not last the whole of the trip back before she succumbed to slumber as well. Even Sildras was close to nodding off by the time we rolled down the hillside into the outskirts of Mournhold.

I am sure that everyone will sleep well tonight. Perhaps even me. I know there have been some frightening dreams of late, but if I got some rest at last it would do me much good. I have been having an easier time of sleeping. Not great, everything seems to come to me with some horrible outcome, even if the outset of the dream is good. But I have awoken feeling more rested regardless and more able to fall back to sleep after waking from the nightmares. As tired as I am, I cannot imagine I would not do the same again. We shall see if it lasts tonight.

#ESO #TES #RP #Dunmer #Elder Scrolls Online #The Elder Scrolls

[whatdoesshedotothem]

Wednesday 20 June 1832

9 ¾

12 35

rain in the night – fine morning F66° at 10 – down to breakfast at 11 35 - very kind letter 2 1/2pp. from Mrs. H.S. Belcombe, York, to announce her return from Harrogate and say she hoped to see me for a little while on my return – odd sort of civil letter from Mr. Parker my attorney at H-x – could not imagine what he was driving at by his apologizing for the liberty taken ‘in my present application, which is on behalf of a young friend, Mr. Edwards Dyson, the youngest son of Mrs. Dyson of Willow field – the gentleman, a genteel youth between 17 and 18, who at present is, and for some time past has been with a private tutor near Cheltenham, is wishful to go upon the continent for 2 or 3 months this summer, and his mother is naturally anxious that he should accompany a respectable and intelligent party – now being very well aware of your experience and judgment in such matters, it has occurred to me that perhaps you might know of some small party taking a continental trip, to whom my young friend might introduced with safety and advantage – could you at all assist us in this matter   it would indeed confer the greatest obligation – Perhaps it is unnecessary to remark that expense would be quite a secondary consideration – I have the honour to remain, Madam, with great consideration your faithful servant Robert Parker’!!! to which I have just written in answer ‘Langton hall – Wednesday 20 January 1832. Sir – nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be able to be of any use to you in any way; and I should also be exceedingly glad to have it in my power to be of any sort of service to Mrs. Dyson of Willow field; but, I regret to say, in the present instance, I know of no means whatever by which I can help you at all – one circumstance or other seems to have caused so great a stagnation among continental travelling parties, that I hear of nothing but indefinite delays or schemes given up – with every possible wish for you success, I am, sir, the obligated A Lister’ - then till about 3 wrote 3pp. and ends to M- 10 days since I wrote wonder I have not heard from her hope it is not on account of illness – have waited to the last in the hope of fearing from her ‘to see whether it was possible to arrange our meeting again and have just determined to leave here on Monday next – as this was not fixed till last night, I could not name it to you before’ – mention having heard this morning from Mrs. Henry Belcombe – should have been glad to spend a little while with her on my return but had just written to her to say that tho’ I was not so alarmed as Mrs. N- at cholera I knew my aunt would be so alarmed at my staying now in York, that I really dared not sleep there and durst only hope to see my friends for an hour or 2 en passant – said I had heard how their (the Lawtons’) plans were changed – York and even Harrogate given up – but M- still still hoped to be in York after their return from London – hoped to be at Shibden by 8 or 9 on Monday evening – feared the cholera had reached Bradford – broken out in London – Mrs. Henry Robinson just brought to bed of a little girl – hope to find a letter from M- at Shibden ‘God bless you my dearest Mary! I shall hardly feel satisfied till I have heard that you are well – Believe me always very entirely and especially yours AL’ I had some difficult to spin it out but it is well enough expressing my anxiety to hear that William Lawton was not likely to disappoint her in anything – ‘I found your little charge’ (little Mariana) ‘is arrived – I shall be glad to see her improved, as I trust she is, in every respect and grown too’ – wrote all the above of today till 3 ¾ - dressed – wrote 2pp. to my aunt – dinner at 4 40 – wrote and sent off this morning at 12 ¼ by James Marshall a ½ sheet full and 1p. of ½ sheet envelope to ‘Mrs. Henry Belcombe, Minster yard, York’ chitchat thank her very much for her kind letter – a great disappointment to me not to be able to spend a little while with her but my aunt would be alarmed etc. an inconvenience to me also thus to hurry out of York, as I had business there I was anxious to settle – said the cholera was a better excuse than usual for the Lawtons change of plans - came to my room at 6 ¼ finished my letter of 3 pages to my aunt merely thanks for her letter and the parcel received on the 12th and to sat I had ‘just fixed to be off from here on Monday morning, stay an hour or 2 in York about the business you know I am so anxious to settle, and hope to reach you about nine in the evening of that day’ - had intended staying a few days but thought it best to keep out of the way of cholera as much as one could - mentioned my letter and draft to Mr Henry Playforth sent off on Monday and begged Marian to name it, if she was writing to any of her friends at Market W- Steel going to Malton and sent off at 6 ¾ my letter to my aunt ‘Shibden hall H-x’ and to ‘Mrs. Lawton, Lawton hall, Lawton, Cheshire’ and to ‘Robert Parker Esquire, the Square H-x’ tea – looking over and making notes from Mrs. N- MS. account taken from his letters of Norcliffes tone to the northern capitals –

walked with CN- in the East balk field or ½ hour then a few minutes in the garden but rain sent me in at 1 ½ -

¾ hour tête-à-tête with CN- very good friends as usual - came to my room at 11 ¾ - CN- with me a few minutes – dull morning – rain from 1 ½ for the rest of the day and all the evening – heavy rain with thunder and forked lightning – F66° at 12 tonight -