banewillow

[banewillow]

Book of Willowbane - Chapter 1- Part ii

Lord Ambrosius Built a Lovely Treehouse For His Only Child https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jSNgFBh6A&ab_channel=ayachaya Ko-Fi

The seeping willowbane was curious in that it was very far removed from where it ought to be, and yet persisted. The hill the manor was built on stretched high into the sky, a small mountain above the sticky-sweet jeweled swampwoods, and so offered a cool, airy haven from the densely-steaming, acidic depths. Yet despite the seemingly ill-fitting climate, the tree in the middle of the courtyard flourished wonderfully. This was a problem because any contact with the wretched growth was sure to bring blistering pustules and a vibrant, multihued rash, within seconds for those who had never brushed up against it before. That the princeling wanted her treehouse built in and around the swaying, leaking thing was terrible. Nevertheless they had to oblige, for it was her will, and she was immune to it anyhow, somehow.

They had figured out she was unaffected by the willowbane in an obtusely morbid fashion. Her mother, post-partum and terribly depressed, had contemplated dropping the newborn in the plant. Swaying like the willowbane itself against the horizon, holding out the child, she decided against it, but her nerves were already frazzled and she was startled by Ambrosius's cry of horror from across the yard. And so she, very much by accident, to be clear, did drop Willowbane into the dripping thicket of thorny, vinelike branches, which twisted in on themselves much like a bird's nest. She had to be dragged away shrieking by Basilberry, while Meglantine was left the gruesome task of pulling out the surely-swollen-to-death child, only to find that she was perfectly unblemished if not a little scratched up. So, the whole affair was treated as a divine blessing, for Dr. Tallory confirmed there were cases of people have less severe reactions and it was really quite extraordinary that the child remained unmarked. Though, to say the lady of the house needed a severe intervention after the excitement had settled down, was an understatement, and a story for later. Oh, little bird, they sighed collectively, as Willowbane flitted in and around the tree during her youth, and even moreso during and after the construction of the marvelous treehouse. They were understanding of her affinity for the tree, but resented having to work around it. Dr. Tallory was on call constantly for tinctures and ointments and eventually set up a small office in the manor for how frequently he was called upon, not the least to keep an eye on Meglantine, which they both resented as well. The household staff had to clean her clothes constantly, and her flouncing frocks often billowed in the breeze on the hill like clouds. But the princeling loved the tree and for all intents and purposes the tree had to have loved her too for how ripe the fruit was every year. Only she could eat it raw, sink her small, sharp teeth into tart, winedark flesh and stain rivulets of juice onto her dresses, but oh, did it make a delicious jam when stewed with sapsugar and ground rosebark.

-- banewillow.neocities.org Photo by Tatiana Zakharova

[banewillow]

The funniest one star review of Wicked I've seen so far

[banewillow]

Book of Willowbane - Chapter 1 - Part i

Lord Ambrosius Built a Lovely Treehouse For His Only Child https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9jSNgFBh6A&ab_channel=ayachaya Ko-Fi

Well, he didn't make it himself. He outsourced much of the structural fantasizing to his gangly, scrambling daughter and the entirety of the handiwork to Mr. Basilberry Glumley, who was only a little miffed about Ambrosius not helping with the construction of his daughter's dream playground. He knew how much his dear friend didn't like to get his hands dirty. At least, not without a sturdy pair of gloves and there were no gloves that fit the Lord's hands at the moment; they were being repaired by Mrs. Meglantine Glumley née Vice who was, as a rule, miffed most of the time by something or other.  They (meaning Basilberry and the household staff, minus Meglantine who refused to lay a finger on the project out of principle for she presciently considered the whole affair just asking for tragedy) built the princeling's haven around the spine of the seeping willowbane, the dismally gorgeous and ominously elegant growth she was named for and which was encircled by the manor, a panopticon so the girl could be kept an eye or four or eight on. She was prone to somnambulistic flights of fancy and the entire house was outfitted with permanently manned mechanical bits and bobs to stop her from throwing herself down flights of stairs in case she decided she could fly that night, or day, occasionally, though previous attempts had not been successful. The sentinel servants operated on a rotating schedule to ensure the Lord and Lady's often-ill offspring didn't offhandedly off herself. She was remarkably persistent, which gave everyone around her severe agita, especially poor Meglantine, for she was indebted to Dr. Spriggon Tallory, but excepting Lady Ava, for she was much more concerned with scheming the next ball they would host. Diligently sewing her multi-stage-transformative showstopper gowns took weeks and nearly all of her attention. She often would not eat during these stages of creation, and so it also fell to Meglantine to coax her out with broth and oats and stewed greens when she could. There were multitudes of household servants but (un)fortunately for Meglantine, she was the only one Ava trusted to not poison her. 

Princeling Willowbane was seven when they finished the treehouse and it had taken a whole year to finally complete, and even then they all knew, wearily, that it would never be complete, only abandoned until Willow had another idea. And oh. There were so many ideas and only so many hours in the day. It seemed to the household that she had many more hours than they did somehow. At heart they all were craftspeople with secret desires of what they would do with their lives if only they had the chance. It seemed only Willow understood that this was the chance and they already had it. But she was seven, so that revelation, even she could articulate it, had a spun-sugar's chance in flame of landing. Much in the same way she would never land on the ground as long as the mechanisms of the manor operated as they intended to, and the Glumleys were excellent makers; clockmakers, toymakers, puppeteers, master and mistress of the house, of the machine built to keep them all safe. From what? Oh, too many things to list for now, but there is indeed a list.

-- banewillow.neocities.org Photo by Tatiana Zakharova

[banewillow]

what is BANEWILLOW?

BANEWILLOW is a multimedia storytelling experience ~8 years in the making. as of 11/2024 it is being posted across multiple platforms in various forms (prose, illustrations, videos, playlists, etc.) and will eventually be localized at banewillow.neocities.org as i build out the site and corresponding pages. as the project evolves, i will be incorporating choose-your-own-adventure, scavenger hunt, escape room, etc. elements and clues as to what's going on with this story -- it's very much in a "pardon our dust" stage and will be for some time, but I hope you enjoy the written segments as they'll be the bulk of story and lore. thank you very much for reading, and i hope you enjoy experiencing BANEWILLOW as much as I've enjoyed making it all this time! stay tuned ;) sibling blog - @knellbyxmori read and support my work here - ko-fi.com/knellbyxmori

[banewillow]

talking to people recently out of prison: a do-and-don't guide

Don't ask, "How was prison?" (Answer: traumatic!)

Do ask, "What are you most looking forward to doing again now that you're out?"

Don't ask, "How long were you in for?" (Answer: too long!)

Do ask, "Is there any technology or pop culture I can help catch you up on?"

Don't ask, "How are you going to avoid getting back into bad behaviors?" (Leave the paternalistic bullshit to their PO.)

Do ask, "How's your support network? Do you have people helping you adjust?"

Don't ask, "Do you have a job yet?" (Their PO is asking them ALL the time, don't worry.)

Do ask, "Are there any opportunities I should keep an ear out for and let you know about?"

Don't ask, "Do you have an ankle monitor?" (And definitely don't ask to see it - no one likes to be gawked at.)

Do ask, "Do you have parole restrictions we need to accommodate when making plans?"

Don't say, "Hey, you shouldn't be doing that - it's against your parole!" (A lot of parole restrictions are bullshit, and they are an adult who deserves agency, even the agency to take risks.)

Do ask, "Are there any bullshit parole restrictions you need help working around?"

Don't ask, "Are you an addict?" (Not everyone in prison is, and they'll tell you if they want you to know.)

Do say, "If there's stuff you might get in trouble for, like empty alcohol containers, I can throw them away at my place."

Don't say, "It's probably best if you put your whole prison life behind you and start fresh." (Just because it was traumatic doesn't mean important experiences and relationships didn't happen there.)

Do say, "If you have letters from friends on the inside that you don't want your PO to find, you can keep them at my place."

Don't say, "You paid your debt to society." (Regardless of what they may have done, harm cannot be repaid through senseless suffering.)

Do say, "You are more than the worst thing you've ever done."

Do not ever ask "What were you arrested for?"/"What did you do?"/"Were you guilty?"

People are more than the worst thing they've ever done.

[banewillow]

Rooms in a Lighthouse

Although the buildings of lighthouses differ depending on their location and purpose, they generally have common components. However, a distinction must also be made between a lighthouse station consisting of the lighthouse and all the outbuildings such as the lighthouse keeper's house, the fuel house, the boathouse and the building for fog signalling, i.e. a land station, and an inhabited lighthouse as it was found at sea.

Sections of Bell Rock and Skerryvore Lighthouses, date 1884

Skerryvore is a remote reef that lies off the west coast of Scotland, 12 miles (19 kilometres) south-west of the island of Tiree. Skerryvore is best known as the name given to the lighthouse on the skerry, built with some difficulty between 1838 and 1844 by Alan Stevenson.

The Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse. It was built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson on the Bell Rock (also known as Inchcape) in the North Sea, 11 miles (18 km) east of the Firth of Tay. Standing 35 metres (115 ft) tall, its light is visible from 35 statute miles (56 km) inland.

If you are only dealing with an inhabited tower, you usually have the following rooms in it. Please note that, apart from the lantern room, there is no standardised scheme and the rooms were often arranged differently.

The lantern room is the glazed housing at the top of the lighthouse that contains the lamp and the lens. The glass panes are held in place by vertical or diagonal metal rungs. A lightning conductor and an earthing system, which are connected to the metal roof of the dome, ensure that any lightning strikes are safely discharged.

Sections of the Eddystone Lighthouse of 1759 and 1884

Immediately below the lantern room is usually a guard room where fuel and other supplies were stored and where the keeper prepared the lanterns for the night and often kept watch. The clockwork (for turning the lenses) was also located there. On a lighthouse there is often an open platform, the gallery, outside the watchroom (main gallery) or the lantern room (lantern gallery). It was mainly used to clean the outside of the lantern room windows. Below this was a living room, bedroom, possibly a separate kitchen, if not a cooking area was accommodated in the living room. In addition, there were often several storage rooms, an oil room (where the oil for the lantern were storaged) and a coal room. And if you're wondering where the bathroom was - well there wasn't one, there was a wash bowl, possibly a wooden tub for an occasional bath, but rarely, and chamber pots in the bedroom.

Life in a lighthouse at sea was not easy and managed to bring many an old sea dog to his knees. The lighthouse keepers on land had it much easier.

[banewillow]

one of my favorite tidbits about speedrunning that comes up every time the games done quick marathons come around is how Wind Waker speedruns are about five hours long because of the giant wall in Hyrule that actually forces the runner to play the game because they’ve been throwing shit at this wall for over a decade and still can’t figure out a way past it. the wall in hyrule is entirely unglitchable and the only way past it is to play the game properly. the speedrun would be like one hour if they could get past this wall but nope, it’s five hours. fuck the wall.

[banewillow]

[banewillow]

watching some presentations on wetlands at work and hearing that the general public have a bad perception of them just from the word "swamp" blew my mind. people don't like swamps?? 😭

People who hear the word swamp and think of nothing more than a foul stinking place are fools but I pity them. They don’t know what you and I know. I want to take them by the hand and open their eyes to the way the universe expands if you will just put on some bug spray and go somewhere that might not be put on a post card.

Like do you NOT want to hear the music of crickets and cicadas ringing through a hall of cypress trees that are old enough to know god? Have you never felt the ground under your feet shiver from the sheer force of a hundred singing bull gators? Do you know that standing in a marsh that is teeming with thousands of animal lives you will never know or be able to understand all around you will make you feel alive again because your ancestors ancestors stood in the same places and felt small and enormous at the same time? I crouched in the reeds of a Saltmarsh watching a stingray eat fiddler crabs and when I turned to leave I found under my boot a fossilized tooth from an ancient horse dating to the last ice age. Mine was likely the first human hand to hold it.

It’s an absolute tragedy when a person who doesn’t realize that humanity and wetlands cannot be separated says “swamps are gross” and misses out on one of the best ecosystems in the world

[banewillow]

a letter a day...

[banewillow]

Tarot Card Lamps // Copper Moon Boutique

[banewillow]

it came to my realization that 99% of my fandom related headaches would be cured if everyone understood this

[banewillow]

[banewillow]

you are not a wasteland you just need ibuprofen and a hot bath and a shower and a nutritious meal and some water and some fresh air and to do something productive and to do something creative and to do something that takes physical exertion and to do something social

[banewillow]

My pigeon griffin is my latest arrival at the Jonathon Bancroft-Snell Gallery for their “Life after Beal” Bealart (my high school art program) alumni show!

Currently available for $600cad. (Edit: Sold!)

Feel free to check out the link and drop them an email for inquiries! International shipping available.

If you're local stop on by when you have a chance and see if anything available for purchase catches your eye :)

[banewillow]

Cross Stitch Patterns // Demon Monkey Craft

[banewillow]

writing isnt even like a hobby to me anymore its just that theres images trapped in my head and if i dont get them out fast enough they start rotting in there and stinking up the place